Contact: Jenna McElroy, Sports Info & Social Media Intern, mcelroy@midwestconference.org
 
Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 | Box Score 3 | Box Score 4
 
MONMOUTH, Ill. – Ripon College advanced to its first Midwest Conference (MWC) Tournament Championship game since 2015 after going 2-0 on Friday. The Red Hawks will face the winner of Cornell College and University of Chicago who play a rematch of Game One at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow.
 
The Rams were shutout by the Maroons 2-0 in the first game of the day to drop into the elimination bracket where they defeated Monmouth College 5-1 to keep their season alive. The Scots, hosts of this season’s tournament after winning the south division, fell to Ripon 4-3 in the pair’s first game of the day.
 
After losing both games on Friday, Monmouth will not repeat as MWC Champions. The Scots cut Ripon’s lead to one twice in their opening but Red Hawk pitcher Brice Swick kept them at bay in a complete game win. Swick allowed just one earned run in his nine innings while striking out four.
 
Monmouth’s Tyler McDonald also went the distance but surrendered four runs. The Scots took advantage of a couple Ripon errors in the third inning to move within 3-2 but the Red Hawks got one back in the fifth as Nick Taranto drove in Joey Garza with a double. Taranto and Garza led the team with two RBI apiece while Tyler Nelson and Michael Barnes scored twice.
 
The win advanced Ripon to a matchup with UChicago, two teams that split their four game regular season series. The Maroons’ Joe Liberman pitched eight scoreless innings with six strikeouts against Cornell to set up the game with the Red Hawks. Connor Hickey scored the winning run after leading off the bottom of the first with a walk then coming around to score on an error.
 
The two teams played a back-and-forth game Friday afternoon that the Red Hawks would win 5-4 to move on to the championship game with no losses in the tournament. Hickey drew a leadoff walk again and scored the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly by Ian Bohn. However, the Red Hawks responded in the bottom of the first with back-to-back RBI singles from Taranto and Keegan Johnston for a 2-1 lead.
 
Bohn would deliver his second RBI to tie the game in the sixth before a Ben Rosengard sac fly regained the lead for the Maroons. Once again, it was short lived as the Red Hawks tied it with their own sacrifice then took the lead on a UChicago error. Ripon got a needed insurance run on another error in the seventh as the Maroons cut the lead to one on a Carson Weekley run scoring hit in the eighth.
 
That would be as close as the Maroons would get as Brody Marks pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to earn the save. Tyler Nelson had a team high three hits while five different Red Hawks had an RBI.
 
UChicago is set to play Cornell Saturday morning after the Rams earned a rematch with a 5-1 win over Monmouth. Sam Kornstad held the Scots to one run in a complete game victory with four strikeouts and only five hits. At the plate, Lucas Larson led the team with two hits and a run scored, Caleb Wichman added a home run and Sage Sutter drove in a team-high two runs.