WAYNE, NE – A complete game effort by Lukas Frers earned the University of Mary baseball team a doubleheader split at Wayne State College to open a 4-game Northern Sun series. The Marauders scored the final six runs in a 6-1 opening game win. The Wildcats rallied to captured the second game 12-9.
 
The Marauders (10-9 overall, 6-4 NSIC) and the NSIC-leading Wildcats (13-7, 8-2) wrap up their series with a doubleheader Friday, March 22, at 12 noon.
 
GAME 1 | UMary 6 Wayne State 1
Pitching the Marauders first complete game of the season, Lukas Frers held the NSIC-leading Wildcats to a single run over seven innings of a 6-1 UMary win. The senior lefthander struck out two and walked just one in the game.
 
Frers has been strong in his last two starts. Today he held the Wildcats scoreless for the first four innings after holding Concordia-St. Paul without a run in 3.1 innings of his last start, also a Marauders win.
 
With the high-powered Marauders offense stifled by lefty Corbin Kirk, UMary found itself trailing 1-0 after five innings. The Marauders, who rank 1^st in the nation in home runs/game and 9^th in runs/game, scored twice in the sith inning to take a 2-1 lead. Kalem Haney, who led off with a single and took third on a Josh Walker double, scored on a Carter Beck sacrifice fly to tie the game. NSIC Player of the Week Noh Hull pulled a single to right  to score Walker and give UMary its first lead of the day at 2-1.
 
Walker put the game out of reach in the seventh inning with a 3-run blast to right field in the 7^th inning for a 5-1 lead. Miachel Polson later added a run-scoring single to cap the scoring.
 
Walker finished 3-for-4 with a double, a home run, two runs scored and three RBIs. Hull added a pair of hits and an RBI. Haney scored twice.
 
Kirk struck out nine Marauders in six innings of work for the Wildcats.
 
GAME 2 | Wildcats 12 Marauders 9
With the wind continuing to whip along at 15 mph on a 45 degree afternoon, the Marauders found their offensive footing early in game two, striking for three runs in each of the first two innings. UMary was never able to shake Wayne State, though, as the Wildcats scored the last eight runs to pull out a split of the day's games.
 
Noah Hull drove in the first run of the game with a double and scored on Michael Polson's 2-run home run. The Wildcats pushed across one run in the bottom of the first before the Marauders went back to work. UMary scored another three runs in the second as Josh Walker forced in a run with a bases loaded walk ahead of a 2-run double by Carter Beck for a 6-1 lead.
 
The Wildcats climbed within 6-4 after three innings before the Marauders posted another three runs in the fourth for a 9-4 lead. Beck the nation's leader in RBIs/game, singled home one run before Hull drove in his secod run of the game. An error by the Wildcats allowed the Marauders final run to score.
 
Wayne State responded with five runs in the 5^th to tie the game. Alex Calabrese provided the Wildcats an 11-9 lead with a 2-run blast in the seventh.
 
Beck finished with three RBIs and a run scored on two hits. Hull and Polson both had two hits, two RBIs and a run scored. Kalem Haney scored two more runs for UMary. Kyle Jameson added two hits and a run scored.
 
Calabrese had two hits with a double, a home run and four RBIs. Quinn McCafferty added three RBIs and Cade Lynam two. Brody Sintek struck out four in 3.2 scoreless innings of relief to earn the win.
 
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