NEW ULM, Minn. - The Martin Luther College baseball team lost both games of its final home doubleheader of the season against Crown College by the scores of 8-2 and 8-6 on Wednesday. 

Crown 8, MLC 2

Crown held MLC to five hits on the way to an 8-2 win in game one.

MLC led 2-1 after four innings thanks to RBI singles from Karl Kuschel and Adam Kock, but the Storm roared back with three runs in the fifth to take a two-run lead, and then put the game away with three runs in the eighth inning.

Jon Kock (1-5) started on the mound for MLC and allowed all eight runs (seven earned) on 12 hits in 7.2 innings. He struck out five while walking one.

Jon Kock, Caleb Christopher and Tyler Roecker joined Adam Kock and Karl Kuschel with one hit apiece.

Crown 8, MLC 6

The Knights rallied from a seven-run deficit in the final inning but were unable to come all the way back in an 8-6 loss.

The Storm jumped on top 7-0 after four innings against Knights' starting pitcher Dillon Solomon (1-5), who allowed those seven runs (all earned) on eight runs and nine walks in four innings. 

Andrew Mantz came in relief and pitched the final five innings, allowing only one run on six hits to give the MLC bats time to get going. That started to show in the eighth inning with a Jon Kock RBI single, and continued into the final frame.

In the ninth, MLC took advantage of a Crown error to score five runs and send the tying run to the plate, but the Storm closed the game with a diving catch of a Jared Lindemann line drive to end the rally.

Jon Kock finished with a team-high three runs batted in, while Christopher had two hits and one RBI.

MLC fell to 6-22 overall and 2-12 in UMAC play with the two losses, while Crown improved to 14-15 on the season and 5-8 in conference play with the win.

The Knights will return to action tomorrow (Thursday, May 4) when they play at North Central in a doubleheader scheduled to start at 5 p.m.