The Madison College baseball team started off their home season with two big wins over the College of Lake County Lancers on Friday April 8. The WolfPack edged out the Lancers in game one by the score of 7-6, before cruising to the 14-0 win in the second game of the doubleheader.
The two squads played even baseball in the opener before Eric DuCharme drove in James Furlano with a double to left center to get the WolfPack on the board in the bottom of the second. The score remained 1-0 Madison College before the home team got on the board again with a solo home run from Andrew Wasmund in the bottom of the fourth. Up 2-0, starter Kyle Coenen was replaced lefty reliever Casey Doucette to start the fifth inning. Coenen pitched four shutout innings with five strikeouts, and was inline for the win before the pivotal fifth. Doucette and fellow reliever Brent Mueller struggled mightily and allowed six runs with two hits and two walks in the frame. Down by two runs, the Madison College bats came alive and were able to tie up the game on Ryan Freitag's three run home run. Lefthanded reliever Mitchell Arens replaced Mueller and threw two scoreless innings, and limited the Lancers to one hit in two innings of work. The WolfPack also tacked on insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth and seventh, including a solo home run by DuCharme, before Arens and the WolfPack picked up their first home win of the year.
In the nightcap of the doubleheader, starter Joel Effertz silenced the Lancer bats from the beginning in route to the 14-0 win. Effertz struckout eight batters in five innings, and allowed two hits while picking up his fourth win on the year. Effertz got plenty of offensive support during his two-hitter as the WolfPack jumped out from the get-go by putting up three runs in the bottom of the first, before putting up four and seven spots in the bottom of the third and fourth innings. Madison College belted out eight hits and were aided by five Lancer errors in the 14-0 beatdown of the Lancers. Outfielder Landon Tenhagen paced the WolfPack and was one of eight on the team that recorded hits. Tenhagen's third inning grand slam put the Madison up 7-0 and he finished 1-for-3 with a run scored and four RBI.
The WolfPack improved to 14-7 on the year and make the short trip to Milwaukee, WI to take on North Central Community College Conference foe MATC-Milwaukee. The doubleheader against the Stormers starts at 12:00 PM.
