VERO BEACH, Fla. -- The Lawrence University baseball team picked up its first victory of the season after a doubleheader split with Grinnell College on Wednesday.
Lawrence (1-5) took the nightcap 8-2 after dropping the opener 5-4.
The Vikings pounded out 12 hits in the nightcap and got a fine pitching performance from senior Luke Kostreva. Kostreva went the distance and allowed six hits while striking out four and walking one. He did not allow an earned run.
A.J. Nathan paced the Lawrence offense by going 4-for-4.
The Vikings broke a scoreless tie with six runs in the bottom of the third. Freshman Zach Owsley hit his first career homer, a two-run shot, to get the Vikings on the board. Andy Frelich picked up a run-scoring double, and Wes Otte had a RBI single in the inning. Lawrence added a pair of unearned runs to finish the frame.
Grinnell picked up single runs in the fouth and sixth, but the Vikings sealed the win with two more runs in the bottom half of the sixth. Larry Mikrut picked up a run-scoring single, his second hit of the game, in the inning.
In the opener, Grinnell built a 5-1 lead and then held off a furious Lawrence rally in the seventh.
Andrew Platt went six-plus innings to get the win. Conor Heneghan turned in a solid pitching performance for Lawrence and took the loss.
Down by four heading into the final inning, Gabe Henriques led off the inning with a single, and Davide Harris followed with a double to score Henriques. Owsley then singled to put runners at the corners. Phil Wisniewski's groundout scored Harris to cut the lead to 5-3.
Otte followed with a RBI groundout to cut the margin to 5-4, but Robert Rashid flied out to end the threat.
Owsley had two hits and Otte drove in two runs to lead the Lawrence attack in the opener.