AUBURNDALE, Fla. -- The Lawrence University baseball team opened its season on Monday with 2-1 and 17-7 nonconference losses to Knox College.
In the opener, the Vikings got a fine pitching performance from freshman Jake Johnson, but Lawrence couldn't muster enough offense to pull out the win. Johnson went the distance in his collegiate debut and allowed five hits while striking out five and walking four.
Jordan Ball went five innings and allowed one run to pick up the win. Spencer McNeil tossed a scoreless seventh to pick up the save.
Lawrence took a 1-0 lead in the third when Luke Kostreva doubled and scored on Robert Rashid's double.
Knox tied it in the bottom of the fourth when CJ Foster doubled and scored on Kyle Walenga's sacrifice fly. The Prairie Fire took the lead in the fifth by manufacturing a run. Alex Petik walked, went to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Michael Schroeder's single.
In the nightcap, Knox collected 13 hits against six Lawrence pitchers.
The Vikings led 6-1 after the second after scoring three times in the first and three more times in the second. The Vikings only had one hit in the first but took advantage of two walks and an error. Rashid picked up a run-scoring single in the second and two walks and an error helped Lawrence score two more times in the inning.
Knox came back to take the lead with six runs in the third. The Prairie Fire had only three hits in the inning, but got a two-run double from Foster and a two-run single from Petik.
Lawrence tied it in the bottom half of the inning on Luke Kostreva's solo homer, but Knox took the lead for good with three runs in the sixth. Ryan Hoffman had a two-run double in the inning and Foster picked up a RBI double.
Knox then sealed the win with seven runs in the seventh. Dexter Brown's two-run triple was the big blow in the inning.
Tyler Hopfauf tossed three innings of hitless relief to pick up the win. Kostreva took the loss in relief.