For the fourth time in school history St. Norbert holds the title of Midwest Conference Champions at the 2012 Baseball Championships. The Green Knights recorded runs in each of the second third and fourth innings to get an early lead and added insurance runs late to complete the 12-3 victory.

Beloit started the scoring off early in game number six scoring a pair of runs in the top of the second inning. With two outs Will Mack homered into the trees in left centerfield to start the scoring and then Emory Nelms scored on a Sean Little infield single to round out the inning.

St. Norbert answered right back with the first batter of the bottom of the inning as Chris Hillesheim sent a pitch to deep left field to cut the Beloit lead in half. The bottom of the third inning saw the home team take the lead as Hillesheim singled home Jordan Powers with two outs which was followed by Matt Hannon scoring from third on a balk the very next batter.

The Green Knights broke the game open in the fourth inning scoring four runs on three hits and a Beloit error. With the bases loaded Travis Mason doubled home a pair of runs and then he and Hannon scored on a sacrifice fly and an error on the same play to build a 7-2 lead.

Beloit mounted a comeback bid in the top of the eighth inning and scored a run on a Will Mack double but Kevin Nutley was brought on to get the final out of the inning to strand Mack in scoring position. The comeback was short lived as the Green Knights tacked on five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to stretch the lead out to nine. The two hit, five run inning was highlighted by RBI singles from Hannon, Mason and Hillesheim.

Travis Mason worked six innings to earn his seventh win of the season. He scattered eight hits and gave up only two runs while walking two and striking out two. Along with the win on the mound Mason had a pair of hits and three RBI while Hillesheim went 4-for-5 with three runs batted in. Jordan Powers played the entire ballgame but didn’t record an official at bat as he walked in each of his five plate appearances.

Jim Leyhane took the loss for Beloit only going 3.2 innings giving up seven runs and six hits over that stretch. The Bucs racked up 11 hits on the day with Mack and Resemer each having three and Little collecting two in the loss.

With the victory St. Norbert earned the MWC automatic qualifier for the NCAA Tournament which will open up regional play next weekend.