RIPON, Wis. - Marian University baseball (10-28, 1-17 NACC) swept the season series from Ripon with an 11-5 road win to finish the non-conference portion of their schedule.

A second inning Jordan Walker RBI single to center field scoring Earl Vorpagel answered a Red Hawk run in the bottom of the first.  Ripon continued their fast start, however, with a big four run inning in the bottom of the second to take the early 5-1 lead.

From there it was all Marian with the Sabres rattling off 10 unanswered runs.  Marian took their first lead of the game scoring five runs in the top of the fourth with Walker, Jake Falish, Eddie Spies and Tony Grannis driving in runs.  The Grannis single to close the inning plated a pair of Sabres and put the score at 6-5 in favor of MU.

Marian extended their lead in the top of the seventh when they were able to take advantage of an error to plate an unearned run.  Mitchel Buss started the inning with a one-out single to right field, and raced over to third in the next at bat when Vorpagel reached on an error.  Jake Litkenhus then produced a quality at bat driving in Buss with a sacrifice fly.

The Marian offense then broke open the game scoring four runs in the top of the ninth.  Schuyler Rath opened the scoring for the inning with a pinch hit single that brought Buss around, which was followed by a Walker double to score a pair, and a Josh Bartelt single to score Walker.  The big inning gave the Sabres a comfortable 11-5 lead and the Red Hawks were set down in order to close the ball game.

Four Sabres would have multi-hit games in the win led by Buss who went 3-5 with three runs scored, and Walker who hit 3-5 with a pair of runs scored and four runs batted in.

Blake Dillavou (1-0) was lights out in relief throwing 7.1 innings of scoreless ball scattering four hits with four strikeouts in his first career win.

Marian is scheduled to close out the season at Dominican for a noon doubleheader Saturday, May 7 in NACC action.

--FightBlueFight--