The Beloit College baseball team saw their program-record 17-game win streak come to an end after splitting a twinbill against Ripon College Tuesday. The Buccaneers extended the streak to 17 (dating back to last season) with a 14-4, seven-inning, victory in the opener before dropping a heartbreaker, 10-9, in the nightcap. The Bucs are now 9-1 on the season and maintain their spot on top of the Midwest Conference North Division standings with a 7-1 mark. 

The high-powered Bucs' offense continued to surge Tuesday blasting 15 hits including six that went for extra bases in the opener. Beloit scored in six innings of the shortened contest bolstered by a three-run first, three-run third and five-run sixth. 

The first run of the game came on a wild pitch as Nick Schmidt slid safely into the plate for an early lead. Brett Kiger singled to center field later int he inning to plate two more and make it 3-0 Beloit after the first half inning. 

In the third, Garrison Ferone tagged a triple to center field to brought James Wicker in to score. Matt O'Leary followed with a homerun blast to extend the gap to 6-0. O'Leary came up big in the next frame with a sacrifice fly that had Bronson Balholm crossing the plate to make it 7-0

Ripon got on the board with a sac fly of their own in the bottom of the fourth before Beloit responded with a single run in the fifth. 

Runs in the Bucs' five-run sixth came from Kiger's single through the left side, a Deven Irwin triple to left, a sacrifice fly off Drew Freitag's bat, a Balholm double to left and a Ferone single to right that gave Beloit a 12-run cushion, 13-1. 

The Redhawks responded with three in the bottom of the frame but the Bucs pushed the lead back to 10 as Kiger scored on a wild pitch in the top of the seventh. Beloit's defense held ending the game after seven complete via the 10-run rule, 14-4. 

Kiger and Balholm combined to go 6-8 at the plate with four runs scored and four runs batted in. Meanwhile, Ferone and O'Leary each went 2-4 at the plate adding a combined four runs and five RBI. 

Thomas Kosakowski notched a complete game on the mound for the Bucs registering his first win of 2021. He scattered six hits across seven innings of work striking out five and walking three. 

The Bucs' offense continued where they left off in game one to start the nightcap but it would all come down to the final inning. Nick Schmidt, Balholm and O'Leary all tagged doubles in the top of the first to give Beloit the early 2-0 lead. A two-out rally for the Redhawks in the bottom of the frame led to three Ripon runs and the first lead change. 

The 3-2 score would hold until the top of the fifth when the Bucs got their stride back at the dish. Ben Jensen led off the frame with a single to right field and Matt Crandall took one for the team in the next at bat. Schmidt ripped another double to bring in one run and Balholm brought in a second with a sacrifice fly. James Wicker followed with a RBI single. After stealing second, Wicker moved to third on a groundout and came in to score on O'Leary's single to center field to give Beloit a 6-3 lead. 

Ripon pushed another run across after the Bucs registered the first two outs of the inning in the bottom of the inning to narrow the gap to 6-4 after five complete. 

The Bucs flipped the script on Ripon plating two runs with two outs in the top of the sixth courtesy of doubles from Crandall and Wicker sandwiching a Redhawk miscue to extend the Beloit advantage to 8-4. 

The Redhawks and Bucs traded single runs in the bottom of the seventh and top of the eighth to bring the score to 9-5 with an inning and a half in regulation to go. 

Another two-out rally for Ripon cut the lead to one. After a pitching change for the Bucs on the mound, Beloit captured the first two outs via fly balls before the Redhawks went single, single, homerun to come to within one, 9-8, heading into the ninth. 

The Bucs threatened in the top of the frame with two singles in the inning but couldn't push a run across. 

A hit batter, wild pitch, Beloit miscue and a groundout allowed Ripon to knot the game 9-9 as the Redhawks held a runner on second. The Bucs registered the second out on a groundout but a single in the following at bat had the winning run cross the plate. 

Both teams recorded 13 hits in the contest. The Bucs were led by Schmidt's 3-5 performance. He also scored three times and tallied a RBI. Balholm, Wicker and O'Leary notched multiple hits in the game combining for five runs and seven RBI. 

Five Buc hurlers saw action on the mound with Wicker suffering the loss after coming in for relief in the ninth.