APPLETON, Wis. -- Tim Salm's game-winning single in the bottom of the ninth inning lifted the Lawrence University baseball team to a 6-5 win in the second game of Saturday's Midwest Conference doubleheader with Ripon College.
Ripon won the opener 4-1 at Whiting Field.
The nightcap was tied 5-5 when Evan Neuens led off the ninth with a single. A sacrfice bunt and ground out moved Neuens to third, setting the stage for Salm. The junior catcher lined a 1-2 pitch from reliever Bryant Bednarek into right field to score Neuens with the game-winning run.
The rally made a winner out of Lawrence starter Kevin Kangas, who went the distance. Kangas allowed eight hits, four of them in Ripon's four-run fifth inning, struck out 12 and walked three. The 12 strikeouts is one shy of the school record Kangas, who improved to 3-3, holds with Chris Isley.
The Lawrence victory snapped Ripon record 24-game conference winning streak and halted Lawrence's eight-game skid against the Red Hawks.
Lawrence (8-17, 3-7 MWC) built a 4-1 lead after striking for two runs in both the second and third innings. Frank Forseth had a two-run single in the second, and Hawk Haiduke delivered a two-run single in the third.
Ripon (15-10, 9-1) went up 5-4 with its big fifth inning, but the Vikings tied it in the bottom of the sixth when Billy Bodle singled to score Haiduke, who had led off the inning with a single.
In the opener, Lawrence couldn't get anything going against Ripon starter Jordan Baitinger. He went eight innings to improve to 5-1 on the season, scattering three hits while striking out five and walking one. Bednarek worked the ninth to pick up his first save of the season.
The Vikings got an unearned run against Baitinger in the first inning, and Ripon tied it with an unearned run of its own in the top of the second. Ripon took the lead in the fourth when Mac Shumann doubled and scored on Bo Johnson's single.
The Red Hawks added two more unearned runs in the fifth, with one scoring on an errant throw and the other a sacrifice fly.
Chris Clouthier took the loss for Lawrence. He allowed only six hits, struck out four and walked one.
Lawrence returns to action Sunday when it faces Ripon at Francis Field in a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader.