The Lincoln Land (30-16) baseball team worked a split in their double header on Friday afternoon against Illinois Central College, losing game one 7-3 and rebounding with a 4-3 win in the night cap.
 
The Cougars from ICC took a commanding 7-2 lead with a four run eighth inning in game one. Leading only 3-2, the Cougars had four consecutive hits off reliever Matt Tomazzoli, the fourth being a homerun off the bat of Nick Schranck.  Logger starting pitcher Ben Hecht (7-2) was strong, but suffered the loss.  Hecht threw seven innings, surrendering three earned runs on five hits and four walks. 
 
Illinois Central's starter Cole Cook (4-3) earned the win with eight solid innings of work.  Cook scattered eight hits, walked two and struck out four.  Logger right fielder Matt Sekardi (2 for 3) was the only Logger with multiple hits.  Tyler Borski had a double, and Conor White and Jake Morsch drove in runs for the Loggers.
 
Lincoln Land squeaked out a win in extra innings to split the doubler header in game two despite having only four hits and committing five errors. Down 3-0 in the bottom the fifth inning, the Loggers battled back by scoring three runs of their own. After an Xavier Collier (2 for 3) single and a Michael Ryan walk, Peyton Minder advanced both runners  with a sacrifice bunt.  Logger right fielder Sam Anderson followed with a double down the right field line to plate both base runners. Anderson would score the Loggers third run on Tyler Ring's sacrifice fly to center.
 
With the game tied up 3-3, Tyler Borski led the bottom of the eighth inning off with a walk.  Tyler Ring then attempted a sacrifice bunt to advance Borski, but the Cougars forced Borski out at second.  With Ring now on first and Conor White at the plate, ICC pitcher Nathan Burnham attempted to pick Ring off with an errant throw that allowed Ring to advance all the way to third base.  With the winning run only ninety feet away and only one out in the inning, Burnham intentionally walked the left handed hitting White and opted to pitch to the Logger cleanup hitter Ben Hecht.  With two strikes, Hecht hit a ground ball to deep short that resulted in an RBI  fielder's choice, as the Cougars attempted to turn a double play, but the throw to first was not in time to get Hecht.  Ring scored from the third base on the play, giving the Loggers a 4-3 walk off win.
 
Logan Reardon (2-1) picked up the win with his one inning of work.  Logger starter Ryan Arnold got a no decision for his effort.  Arnold allowed three unearned runs in his seven innings of work. He struck out nine and walked only one. 
 
The Loggers will travel to Peoria on Monday, May 1 to complete their conference series with Illinois Central College.  Game time is scheduled for 4:00pm.