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GALESBURG, Ill. – The Ripon baseball team won a pair of games Friday afternoon in the first day of Midwest Conference Tournament play, securing themselves a berth in the 2008 MWC Championship game. The Red Hawks started the day off on the right note with a 6-3 win over tournament host Knox College. They followed that up with a 4-2 victory over heated rival St. Norbert College.
The Red Hawks (27-8) wasted no time against Knox (12-24), scoring in the top of the first, thanks to an error on the Prairie Fire shortstop. Knox would take their first lead of the game in the bottom of the fourth, in an inning which saw the first three batters reach base, including an RBI single with nobody out. The Prairie Fire took their first lead of the game on a bunt single with one out, but couldn't add to that lead, leaving two men stranded in the inning.
That lead didn't last long, as Ripon scored four times in the following inning. After the first batter flew out to left, Nate Paul, Mac Shumann, and Nick Beaman recorded three consecutive singles to load the bases. That led to an Alex Duros double in the very next at-bat, clearing the bases and giving the Red Hawks a 4-2 lead. Duros would later score on a hit by Brett Wegner.
Ripon added another run in the top of the ninth on an RBI single by Nick Beaman. Knox matched that in the bottom of the ninth, scoring on an RBI double, but they couldn't get anything else going, thanks to Ripon's clutch pitching down the stretch.
Shumann and Beaman led the Red Hawks with three hits apiece, while Paul and Wegner each finished with two. Freshman Bob Bruce (2-1) picked up the win thanks to eight strong innings of seven-hit ball. Bryant Bullock came on in relief to record his third save of the season.
The big test of the day came in Ripon's second game of the day, a clash of the titans with St. Norbert College
(25-10) , who won their first game 16-1 over Monmouth College. They wouldn't do nearly that amount of damage to the Red Hawk pitching staff, as the Green Knights only produced three hits in Ripon's 4-2 victory.
St. Norbert opened the scoring in the second inning, crossing the plate on a Red Hawk throwing error. Ripon quickly answered back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second, when Wegner hit a two-run bomb over the left field fence.
Ripon scored again in the fifth when Nate Paul was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, forcing a run home for a two-run advantage. St. Norbert cut that in half in the following inning on an RBI single, but the Red Hawks would never relinquish the lead, scoring an insurance run in the eighth when Shumann scored from third on a wild pitch.
Wegner was the only Red Hawk with multiple hits, connecting on two base knocks, while also scoring twice. Mike Lloyd went the distance, pitching nine strong innings and limiting St. Norbert to just one earned run on three hits.
Ripon will now play the waiting game, as they'll face the winner of tomorrow morning's Knox/St. Norbert contest for the MWC Championship and a right to go to the NCAA Regional playoffs. That championship game will begin at 12:30 p.m. in Galesburg, Ill. If Ripon were to lose, the two teams would play a second championship game at 3:30 in the double-elimination tournament.
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