MADISON, WISC. - Playing its final North Central Community College Conference doubleheader of the season Saturday at Robin Roberts Field, the Madison College baseball team needed two wins against defending champion and frontrunner Triton College to earn a share of the 2017 league title. On a cold, wet, and windy day, the WolfPack rallied late to steal a 4-3 win on Garrett McGraw's walk-off single in the opener, setting up a chance at the title, but the NJCAA Division I Trojans won a wild finale by a 14-9 score. The 'Pack finishes 8-4 in the N4C, tied with College of DuPage for second place, two games back of Triton.

Game #1: Madison College 4, Triton College 3

In the day's opening game, the visiting Trojans grabbed the early lead with a run in the second against starter Hank Schau, using two hits and a two sacrifices. The WolfPack tied it back up in the bottom of the third. With Drew Steinmetz on second following a single and a stolen base, Tanner Umentum doubled to center to tie the game.

Still even through five innings, Triton used a solo home run in the sixth for a 2-1 lead. The Trojans added an insurance run in the top of the seventh thanks to two singles and an error, followed by back-to-back fielder's choices, the second of which resulted in a run scored and a 2-0 deficit going into the final half inning.

With two outs on the board and Steinmetz on first, Umentum again came up huge, crushing triple to right to bring the WolfPack within a run. Two batters later, Chris Lund singled up the middle tied the game with Umentum scoring. That brought freshman Garrett McGraw to the plate with runners at first and second. The Lodi, Wisconsin, native hit a hard ground ball that snuck through the right side and sent fellow first year Logan Michaels sprinting in from second for the walk-off win.

McGraw finished as one of four players with two-hit games to lead the WolfPack. Steinmetz had a team-best two runs scored and Umentum a team-leading two RBI, to go along with crossing home once. Umentum, a native of Denmark, Wisconsin, went for extra bases on both of his hits.

Starter Hank Schau did not factor in the decision after limiting the Triton offense to three runs, two of which were earned, on eight hits in his six innings of work. The second year righthander walked one and struck out four, but was forced to leave the game in the seventh with the bases loaded and no outs. Riley Pawelski (2-0) entered, and after getting the lead runner at home on a fielder's choice to short, couldn't prevent the third run from scoring on another fielder's choice. The South Beloit, Illinois, native has allowed just one earned run and one hit over six-plus innings in his five appearances.

Game #2: Triton College 14, Madison College 9

Game two was the complete opposite as the winds picked up and the rain fell harder. WolfPack starter Riley Pelischek struggled with his command and was removed after six hitters. He walked three, and gave up a double and a single to make it an early 3-0 lead before Jon-Anthony Caban jumped into early relief duty to limit the damage. A double and two singles pushed the score to 5-0 for Triton.

The Trojans added another in the third, but Madison College game right back to tally their first run of the day. Garrett McGraw kept his hot bat going with a RBI-double to center that plated Umentum. The deficit, however, continued to grow as Kaskaskia College transfer Branden Frank started the fourth inning in relief duty. Frank gave up two more runs on three hits, two free passes to first, and an error to make it 8-1.

Madison College, though, would not go down without a fight, and it yielded five runs in the fourth to bring the home team within 8-6. Nick Blomgren dealt the biggest blow, crushing a three-run homer to deep center for his first home run of the season. Three batters later Logan Michaels single in Drew Steinmetz, and Chris Lund followed with a run-scoring double that pushed Umentum across the plate.

The defending league champs had an answer with two runs of their own in fifth that forced coach Mike Davenport to bring in Darren Strasburg to relieve Frank. The former Lake Mills High School athlete failed to keep the Trojans off the board with three additional runs in the sixth.

Michaels and McGraw both doubled in a run in the home half of the sixth to make ti 13-8, before each team scored one run in the seventh to end the game and hand Triton College its second straight outright N4C championship.

Umentum and Carson Carmody both went 3-for-4 to pace the hitting attack, with Umentum scoring three runs and driving in another. The first year infielder was 5-for-8 on the day with four runs and three driven in. Blomgren tallied three runs batted in for the first time since the first game of the year, and Michaels and McGraw both finished with two RBI.

Pelischek (2-4) suffered second consecutive loss after surrendering six earned runs on nine hits and three walks. The University of North Dakota transfer did strike out three in his 1/3 of an inning. Caban tossed 2 2/3 innings with one earned run on four hits. Frank allowed four runs, two of which were earned, on three hits and three walks in his 1 1/3 innings. And Strasburg's final line was 2 2/3 innings with three earned runs on three hits. WolfPack pitching combined for nine walks and two hit batters, while striking out five.

Up next:

Madison College was slated to play a twin bill at Black Hawk College-Moline (26-6), but ugly weather forced a cancellation of the matchup. The WolfPack is off until Thursday when they host #18 McHenry County College (32-9-1) at Robin Roberts Field. The Scots, who won last year's Region IV Division II title, own an 18-9-1 lead in the all-time series after winning the last four meetings. MCC won all three contests in 2016, including an 11-10 decision in the Region IV Tournament semifinals. First pitch of game one is at 2:30 p.m., with game two to begin at approximately 5:30 p.m.

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