The Lincoln Land baseball team closed out their regular season on Saturday with a sweep of conference rival Heartland Community College. The Loggers took three of four games from the Hawks to win the series and to finish the season with a record of 38-18.
 

The Loggers came from behind in game one, taking a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the sixth by scoring four runs.  Five consecutive one out hits from Peyton Minder (1b), Sam Anderson (2b), Tyler Borski (1b), Xavier Collier (1b), and Conor White (2b) gave the Loggers a 5-4 lead.  After an intentional walk to cleanup hitter Ben Hecht, Jake Morsch drove in White with a sacrifice fly to cap the inning. Collier was 4 for 4 in the game and White finished 2 for 4.
 
Clay Shourd (3-1) earned the win for Loggers with three scoreless innings in relief of starter Chris Robinson (5-3).  Shourd gave up only one hit, one walk, and struck out three. Thomas Bushnell (4-4) suffered  the loss in relief for the Hawk's starter Andrew Sykes (5-1).
 
In game two, Lincoln Land handed Heartland hurler Tyler Hasper (9-1) his first loss on the season.  Hasper threw a complete game, allowing four hits, four walks, and struck out eleven. The Loggers scored their only two runs of the game in the bottom of the fourth.  Hecht led the rally with a lead off walk and advance to second on an errant pick off attempt from Hasper.  Jake Morsch followed with a bunt single, advancing Hecht to third base.  Hasper then balked on another pickoff attempt, giving the Loggers a 1-0 lead.  Left fielder Matt Sekardi laid down a bunt single next to advance Morsch to third, and third baseman Michael Ryan (2 for 3, 2b) drove him in with a fielders choice ground ball to short. 
 
The Hawks answered in the top of the fifth as they knocked Logger lefty starter Tyler Borski out of the game.  Borski was cruising until Heartland right fielder Tyler Schmidt belted a solo homerun to lead off the inning, cutting the Logger lead in half. Borski would get two outs in the inning before Collin Ridout hit a come backer line drive single off of him.  Coach Riggle removed him from the mound and brought in freshman Logan Reardon, who got Noah Sadler to ground out into a fielders choice to the end the inning and the scoring threat. Reardon (3-1) would stay in to finish the game and earn the win.  He allowed one hit, one walk, and struck out two.
 
"That was a great weekend for us and great way to end the regular season," coach Ron Riggle said after the games on Saturday.  "Heartland is always a tough team to play, (ranked 4th in the NJCAA national poll), so for us to take three of four from a nationally ranked team should give us some nice confidence and momentum heading into our Regional Tournament."
 
The Region XXIV Tournament will be hosted at Lincoln Land Community College, Thursday May 19th- Sunday May 22nd.  The Loggers are the three seed and will play the six seed (TBD), scheduled for Thursday at 3:00pm.