BELOIT, Wis. -- The Lawrence University baseball team dropped a 17-9 Midwest Conference decision to Beloit College on Wednesday at The Ballpark.
    The teams combined for 38 hits against 11 pitchers.
    Spenser Ross went 3-for-4, and Taylor Freeman was 3-for-5 for the Vikings (18-10, 13-5 MWC). Parker Knoll, Zach Leslie, Jeffery Cambra and Preston Anderson all had two hits for Lawrence. Jacob Charon and Edan Perez both belted homers for the Vikings.
    Lawrence jumped on top in the first inning when Knoll doubled and Leslie delivered a run-scoring double. Charon added a sacrifice fly, and Lawrence led 2-0. Beloit tied it in the bottom half of the inning and took a 4-2 lead in the second.
    The Vikings tied it with two runs in the third when Leslie started the inning with a single, and Charon smacked his 16th homer of the season to knot the game at 4-4. Beloit (14-18, 10-8) countered with five runs in the bottom of the third for a 9-4 lead.
    The Vikings pulled to within 9-8 when they scored four times in the fifth. Freeman and Anderson started the inning with singles, and Ross got a bunt single to load the bases. Mitchell Sandleback singled to score Freeman, and Knoll hit into a fielder's choice to score Anderson. A throwing error on the play allowed Ross to score to trim the lead to 9-7. After a wild pitch sent Knoll to third, Cambra delivered a sacrifice fly to trim the lead to 9-8.
    Beloit struck back with three runs in bottom of the fifth, but the Vikings got a run back when Perez homered in the sixth to cut the lead to 12-9. The Bucs then scored twice in the sixth and three more times in the seventh to pull away.
    Ryan Deany pitched one inning of scoreless relief to get the win, and Jonah Palmer took the loss in relief of starter Edlen Santana.
    Lawrence won two of three games against Beloit in the series and hosts Knox College in a three-game series this weekend.