APPLETON, Wis. -- The Lawrence University baseball team pounded out 25 hits Saturday and swept a Midwest Conference doubleheader from Knox College at Whiting Field.
    Lawrence won the opener 5-2 and took the second game 9-7. The Vikings took two of three games from Knox in the weekend series.
    In the first game, Lawrence (13-14, 7-5 MWC) took a lead in the first inning and rode the starting pitching of Elden Santana. Santana went eight innings and allowed two runs on six hits while striking out eight and walking three. Santana improved to 5-1 on the season with the victory.
    Taylor Freeman led Lawrence's 11-hit attack by going 4-for-4 with a home run, one run batted in and three runs scored. CJ Filipek went 3-for-4 with a double, drove in two runs and scored a run for the Vikings. 
    Filipek's two-run single gave the Vikings a 2-0 lead in the opening inning, and added a run in the third when Freeman led off the inning with a homer. 
    After Knox cut the lead to 3-2 in the top of the fifth, the Vikings countered with two runs in the bottom half of the inning. Freeman started the rally with a single, and Filipek then doubled. After Edan Perez's sacrifice fly scored Freeman, Zach Leslie singled to score Filipek for a 5-2 advantage.
    Knox (14-14, 6-6) put two runners on in the ninth against reliever Shane Foley, but Foley got a double play to end the game and record his fifth save of the season.
    Freeman had another monster game at the plate in the nightcap as he went 3-for-4 with a homer, three RBIs and a run scored. Lead-off hitter Tate Hartlaub went 3-for-5 with a double, two runs scored and one RBI for the Vikings. Filipek and Shane Santaga both went 2-for-4 and drove in a run.
    The game was tied 1-1 when the Vikings exploded for six runs in the second. Hartlaub had a run-scoring single, and Sage Beebe-Jenny drove in two runs with a single for a 4-1 lead. Freeman then launched a three-run homer, his seventh of the season, to put the Vikings up 7-1. 
    Lawrence added two runs in the fifth on a Santaga run-scoring single and a William Zatkowski sacrifice fly for a 9-1 advantage.
    With starter Conner Robertson out of the game, Knox fought back against the Lawrence bullpen. The Prairie Fire scored four times in the sixth and two more times in the ninth before William Polanco shut down the threat to end the game.