APPLETON, Wis. -- The Lawrence University baseball team took blasted six home runs in its Midwest Conference doubleheader with Illinois College on Saturday and rolled to a sweep of the Blueboys.
    Lawrence won the opener 16-6 in seven innings thanks to a 10-run outburst in the sixth, and the Vikings rode a great pitching performance from Elden Santana to a 10-3 victory in the nightcap.
    In the first game, Taylor Freeman went 2-for-3 with a pair of home runs, scored three times and drove in four runs for the Vikings (26-8, 17-2 MWC). Zach Leslie went 3-for-4 with a double and a triple, scored three times and drove in a run for Lawrence.
    Parker Knoll and Edan Perez both homered, and Perez's homer was a walk-off in the seventh as it gave the Vikings a 10-run margin to end the game.
    Quinn Berglin went all seven innings for the Vikings to get the victory and improve to 8-0 on the season. Berglin allowed seven hits and three earned runs, struck out six and walked two.
    Lawrence trailed 5-0 heading to the bottom of the second when Freeman homered to get Lawrence on the board. Knoll homered in the third to cut the margin to 5-2, and William Zatkowski's two-run single in the fourth cut the Illinois College lead to 6-4.
    The Vikings then went off for 10 runs in the sixth inning. Ben Gutowski had a run-scoring single to cut the margin to 6-5, and Stephaune Haylock had a two-run, pinch-hit single to give the Vikings a 7-6 lead. 
    Perez drew a bases-loaded walk to force in a run, and Charon laced a single to center field to drive in two more for a 10-6 advantage. Leslie followed with single to score Perez, and that set the stage for Freeman. He hit a booming home run to left to score three, and the Vikings were up 14-6.
    The Vikings then wrapped up the game in the seventh when Haylock was hit with a pitch, and Perez smacked a two-run homer for a 16-6 lead.
    Santana turned in a gem in game two as he went seven innings, and allowed four hits and no earned runs. He struck out a season-high 10 against just one walk to improve to 4-2 on the season.
    Charon went 2-for-4 with a home run, drove in four runs and scored once. Knoll was 2-for-5 with a homer, three runs scored and two runs batted in. Nick Heerde went 2-for-5 with a double and scored a run. 
    This time the Vikings jumped out to a 5-0 lead with two runs in the first as Leslie picked up a run-scoring single. Lawrence pushed the lead to 5-0 after scoring three runs in the second. Heerde singled and William Polanco doubled to get things started, and Luke Miles walked to load the bases. After a ground ball drove in Heerde, Polanco scored on a wild pitch, and Charon singled to drive in Knoll for a 5-0 lead.
    Lawrence eased away from the Blueboys (20-16, 7-13) with four runs in the fourth. The big blow was Charon's three-run homer on the first pitch from reliever Charlie Lardi. Lawrence tacked on another run in the inning and added one more in the eighth.
    The Vikings' 26 wins this season ties the season record for wins set in Lawrence's 2022 Midwest Conference championship season.