April 29, 2023 – Loras College baseball secured an important series victory against Luther College on Saturday afternoon as a walk-off single from senior Tyler Pransky gave the Duhawks the 9-8 victory in the rubber match.

The Duhawks (24-13, 14-7 A-R-C) took game one of the series on Friday night before the Norse (21-15, 14-7 A-R-C) came from behind and grabbed game two 9-3 to open Saturday's doubleheader. Loras tallied three runs in the bottom of the ninth in game three to complete the comeback and the series victory, which gives the Duhawks the tiebreaker advantage against the Norse as the two battle for the No. 2-seed in the upcoming American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) tournament.

Luther 9, Loras 3
The final score of Saturday's first game only tells the story of the final two innings as the first seven operated under a different set of circumstances. Loras freshman Max Vaisvila and Luther's Harry Blum went to battle, and each pitched six frames of nearly flawless baseball as the first run didn't come until the bottom of the sixth inning.

In the sixth, an RBI single for senior Ryan Wohlers broke the stalemate and put Loras ahead 1-0. It also came just one inning after Vaisvila worked his way out of a bases loaded, no out jam to keep the Duhawks in it. For a while, it looked like that lone run would be enough, but the Norse tied the game with an RBI single in the top of the eighth.

In the next half-inning, a two-out, two-RBI double for senior Mitch Gruber put the Duhawks ahead 3-1 as they again looked to be on their way to victory, but the Norse came alive and tallied seven hits in the ninth inning to push eight runs across. Just like that, it was the Norse who were cruising to an unexpected 9-3 win.

Loras 9, Luther 8
Game two was more a back-and-forth affair on the scoreboard as some early production had the Duhawks ahead 4-1 at the end of three innings after a two-RBI single from junior Nick DiBenedetto.

Another big inning for Luther followed as the Norse plated four runs on five hits in the top of the fourth to take a 6-4 lead, which is where the score remained until they added two more in the top of the seventh to extend the lead to 8-4.

The Duhawks responded in the bottom half and got both runs back as senior Dakota Church ripped a two-RBI single of his own to cut the deficit in half. That gave the Duhawks a chance as they headed to the ninth still in need of at least two runs.

Each of the first two batters reached base and ultimately scored in the Loras half of the ninth as Church walked and scored on an RBI double for junior Daniel Rogers. Rogers later scored on a wild pitch during senior Max Cullen's at bat to tie the game.

Pinch-hitter Jackson Cullen's attempt at a sacrifice bunt turned into a single before DiBenedetto executed his sac bunt to move runners to second and third, setting up Pransky's heroics as his game-winning single plated pinch-runner Ethan Gast and ignited the Loras celebration.

Wohlers was the pitcher of record for Loras as he pitched the final three innings and allowed only one hit and two earned runs.

Loras finishes the regular season next weekend with a home series with Coe College, starting with a Senior Day doubleheader on Friday, May 5 at 3:30 P.M.