WACONIA, Minn. - The Martin Luther College baseball team split its doubleheader at Crown on Wednesday, winning game one 17-13 before losing game two 13-6.

GAME 1

The Knights overcame an early seven-run deficit to defeat the Storm 17-13 in game one.

Crown scored seven runs in the first two innings to take an early 7-0 lead, and still led 12-8 after six innings, but MLC raced into the lead thanks to nine runs in the final three innings to earn the win.

Jason Lindemann was the top MLC hitter with a pair of home runs, three runs scored and three runs driven in. Those two home runs give him five this season, tying him for the MLC single-season record. 

All of the first eight hitters in the MLC line-up scored at least one run in the game. Jonathan Kock, Lindemann, Karl Kuschel, Travis Kretsch, Tom Keller and Jacob Schultz all finished with at least two hits. 

John Marquardt entered the game in relief of Kock in the seventh inning and earned his first career win, allowing only one run (unearned) on one hit with two strikeouts in three innings. He is now 1-3 on the season. 

GAME 2

Crown was able to come back to win game two 13-6 to secure a split of the doubleheader.

MLC led 2-0 thanks to RBI from both Jason and Jared Lindemann in the first inning, and later led 3-1 after Schultz singled home Kuschel in the top of the fourth inning.

The Storm would get the bats rolling in the fifth, however, scoring six runs to take the lead off MLC starting pitcher Dillon Solomon. Crown would add three runs in both the sixth and seventh innings to put the game out of reach.

James Hemmelman, Jared Lindemann and Schultz led MLC with two hits apiece in the game.

Solomon took the loss for MLC, allowing seven runs on seven hits and four walks in 5.0 innings. He fell to 1-7 on the season.

Following the split, MLC moved its record to 8-24 this season and 4-10 in UMAC play. Crown now holds a record of 13-17 overall and 4-10 in conference play.

MLC will close its season on Saturday, May 7, when it hosts Northwestern in a doubleheader scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m.