JACKSONVILLE, Ill. -- The Lawrence University baseball team hit four homers Sunday and finished with 19 hits in a 16-6 Midwest Conference victory over Illinois College at Joe Brooks Field.
    The win gave Lawrence a series win as the Vikings took two of three games from the Blueboys. Lawrence also enters the final week of the regular season with a slim lead atop the Midwest Conference standings.
    Edan Perez went 4-for-5 with a homer and a double, drive in four runs and scored twice for Lawrence (16-16, 10-6 MWC). Taylor Freeman went 3-for-5 with a homer and a double, drove in two runs and scored three times for the Vikings. Lawrence's Zach Leslie was 3-for-4, drove in three runs and scored twice. 
    Tate Hartlaub went 2-for-5 with a homer, two runs scored and one driven in, and Sage Beebe-Jenny hit his first collegiate homer while finishing 2-for-5 with four runs scored and one RBI. William Zatkowski went 2-for-4 with a double, and CJ Filipek was 2-for-5 with two runs scored and one RBI.
    Malachi Ross pitched five innings of relief to pick up the victory and improve to 3-0 on the season. Ross allowed three runs on four hits, struck out seven and walked one.
    Lawrence grabbed the lead for good with three runs in the second inning. Ben Gutowski's two-run single helped the Vikings to a 3-1 lead. Filipek and Leslie both had run-scoring singles in the fifth as Lawrence built a 5-2 lead. The Blueboys (22-15, 10-8) countered with two runs in the bottom of the fifth to cut the lead to 5-4.
    The Vikings stretched the lead with three runs in the seventh. Leslie picked up a run-scoring single in the inning before Perez was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Shane Santaga's sacrifice fly scored another, and the Vikings were up 8-4.
    Lawrence then put the game away with five runs in the eighth. Freeman and Leslie both picked up run-scoring singles before Perez blasted a three-run homer for a 13-4 advantage. The Vikings tacked on three more runs in the ninth when Hartlaub, Beebe-Jenny and Freeman hit back-to-back-to-back home runs in the frame.
    The 19 hits are a season high for the Vikings, who return to action Wednesday at Ripon College.