GRINNELL, Iowa - It took two games, but the Ripon College baseball team is back where they've been many times before - King of the Midwest Conference. The Red Hawks earned their latest crown on Saturday, defeating Cornell College to win their 21st conference championship, while advancing to the NCAA Regional Tournament for the 12th time and fourth in the last six years.
Ripon (23-13) entered the day locked into the MWC Championship game, needing just one win to win the conference title. Things were easier said than done however, as Cornell (19-22) defeated the Red Hawks 4-2, forcing a second game for all the marbles. Ripon left no doubt in that second game, taking the MWC crown with an 8-0 victory.
In the first game, Cornell never trailed, taking a 3-0 lead in the top of the first and holding on for the victory. Ripon only got within two runs at two different points in the game. Ripon finished with 10 hits, led by a 3-for-3 performance by Nick Kita, who also recorded the team's only RBI. Nick Schmitt added two hits, while scoring once. Aaron Langdon (3-1) suffered the loss, despite allowing two earned runs on three hits, while striking out eight in his four innings.
The second game saw the Red Hawks take an early lead that they would never relinquish, scoring two runs in the top of the first on Michael Polcyn's ninth home run of the season and third of the Tournament. He has now gone deep eight times in Ripon's last 11 games.
Ripon added three more runs in the third, scoring on an error, a sacrifice fly and a bases loaded walk. Mitchell Busch gave them a 6-0 lead in the fifth with an RBI single to right field. The Red Hawks continued to pour it on in the sixth, scoring on a groundout and an RBI single by Schmitt.
Kita, Schmitt, and Jake Reinke led the Red Hawks with two hits apiece, which accounted for 67 percent of the team's hits in the game. Kita, Polcyn, and Busch each finished with a game-high two RBI, while Polcyn scored three times and reached base in four of his five trips to the plate, including three times on an intentional walk. Matt Hecht (3-4) earned the victory, allowing six hits in seven innings of scoreless ball, while striking out six.
The Red Hawks will find out who and where they will play at Regionals on Monday morning at 2 a.m.