Winona, MN - The Martin Luther College baseball team played in a doubleheader with UW-Superior on Good Friday on the campus of Saint Mary's (MIAC). The Knights played well enough to win both contests and received a couple of deep outings from Matt Rieger and Connor Heckendorf, but the Yellowjackets came up with timely hits and made the plays needed to beat MLC 5-4 in game one and 6-3 in the later game.

UW-Superior 5, MLC 4

Rieger went the distance on the mound in the first game and got out of the fourth inning after allowing a lead-off double. Carter Seltz backed up Rieger with an RBI triple in the second inning and a RBI single in the fourth, while Jackson Anderson drove in two runs in the second and fourth inning respectively to help MLC take a 4-1 lead.

In the top of the fifth inning, the UW-Superior bats woke up and they would tie the game up following a Payton Steiner big fly and a Wylee Lottman triple (4-4). The Yellowjackets then took advantage of an MLC error in the eighth that would've ended the inning and Brian O'Dwyer brought in the game winning run (5-4).

Rieger threw his second complete game of the season and tossed three strikeouts on the hill.

Caleb Heckendorf led MLC in hits (4) and runs (2) and got on base throughout the game to spark some MLC rallies. Seltz and Anderson had two RBI apiece and MLC as a team outhit the Yellowjackets 12-9.

UW-Superior 6, MLC 3

Connor Heckendorf gave MLC another lengthy start in the second matchup, giving the Knights eight innings of work. On the other side, Ben Welle had a solid outing for the Yellowjackets and the game was a pitchers' duel through three frames.

MLC got on the board first courtesy of an RBI single by Spencer Lilienthal in the fourth inning. Freshman Mark Vogel then hit his first career home run in the fifth inning to give the Knights a 2-0 boost.

In the following inning, the Yellowjackets got two runners on base and Tanner Voight put UW-Superior up 3-2 with his deep homer to center field. 

Caleb Heckendorf evened things up 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh, when he hit a single that scored Mason Cox, who led the inning off with a triple to left field.

The Knights brought Connor Heckendorf out for the ninth inning, but the freshman was running up against a high pitch count and would be pulled with a bases loaded and no out situation. From there, UW-Superior played small ball and manufactured three runs off of a hit by pitch and a sacrifice fly and managed to hold off MLC again 6-3.

Cox went 4-for-5 at the plate with two triples and MLC once again outhit UW-Superior 11-10. The Knights also played well overall on defense and had an errorless game.

Despite the losses, MLC (3-15, 0-5) showed some more improvement against one of the tougher schools in the conference. The Knights will return after Easter Break for a three-game series at Northwestern on April 5-6.