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RIPON, Wis. – Leading 4-1 heading into the ninth inning, St. Norbert College withstood a late rally by Grinnell College to earn a 4-3 victory and earn their fifth Midwest Conference Baseball Tournament Championship.
Box Score
St. Norbert went a perfect 3-0 over the weekend and became the first school since St. Olaf College in 1971-72 to win MWC titles in football, men's basketball and baseball in the same school year.
In the top of the ninth, Ryan Penaflor led off the inning with a single before Brett Nohr (6-3) got Anthony Mack to flyout. Matt Schaefer walked and Matt Godinsky singled to load the bases for Grinnell. Jacob Beecher lifted a two-run double to cut the score to 4-3 and chase Nohr. Jake McMahon relieved Nohr and hit his first batter to load the bases again, however he got Walker Bell to fly out to right and Kainoa Inafuku to pop out to preserve the victory and earn the save.
The Green Knights scored the first run of the afternoon in third, but the Pioneers matched them in the fourth. St. Norbert notched a run in the fifth and added two critical insurance runs in the eighth.
St. Norbert will open regional play in the NCAA Division III Tournament on Wednesday. Pairings will be announced by the NCAA on Monday morning.
Semifinal
Grinnell College 4, Ripon College 2
Box Score
A four-run fourth inning proved to be enough for Grinnell as they defeated Ripon College to play the eventual champion St. Norbert.
In the fourth, the Pioneers scratched across four unearned runs on just two hits, and were helped by three errors by the Red Hawk defense. Inafuku knocked in Jacob Beecher with a sacrifice fly, while Teague Towner crossed the plate courtesy of a wild pitch. Penaflor did the rest of the damage with a two-run single to score Niko Takayesu and Bell.
Ripon cut the lead to 4-1 in the sixth on an RBI single by Nick Schmitt. The Red Hawks scored their final run on a double by Tom Sawyer to score Nick Uhen in the seventh.