Box Score After a heart-breaking loss the previous night, the Spartans of Aurora University responded by defeating the Green Knights of St. Norbert College 11-5 in an elimination game on Friday afternoon at the Midwest Regional at the University
The Spartans offense gave sophomore starting pitcher Brad Warnecke an early lead, scoring a run in the first inning when senior outfielder Ryan Adams singled with two-outs, stole second and came around to score on a single by senior first baseman Brett Van Asdlen.

AU then added to the lead in the second inning with senior Josh Davidson singling with one out and then stole second. Senior catcher Ryan Payne reached after being hit by a pitch, bringing senior shortstop Bobby Wilson to the plate. Wilson reached on a beautiful bunt base hit to load the bases. All three Spartan base runners then moved up a base on a failed pick off attempt with Davidson scoring before Payne scored on a sacrifice fly by senior third baseman Tim Mackey.

In the fourth, AU added a single run when Mackey hit a home run to left field giving the Spartans a 4-0 lead.

Warnecke gave up his first run to the Green Knights in the bottom of the fourth inning. With two outs, St. Norbert got a
The Spartans responded in the fifth inning with another run to expand the lead back to four (5-1). Adams led off with a ground-rule double to right-center. Van Asdlen then singled sharply to left center to score Adams who was attempting to steal third on the pitch.

As Warnecke continued to keep the Green Knights off balance, the Spartans added more runs in the seventh inning. Van Asdlen led off with a single that was followed by a ground-rule double by junior Cory Walden giving AU runners on second and third and no-outs. Junior Mike Foley then singled to right to score Van Asdlen for a 6-1 lead.
AU expanded the lead in the eighth inning, scoring two more runs. With one-out freshman second baseman Tanner Oymaian was hit by pitch, Adams walked. After a ground-out by Van Asdlen advanced the runners to second and third, Walden hit his second ground-rule double of the game, this time to left-center field to score Oymaian and Adams giving the Spartans a 9-1 lead.

The Green Knights were able to chase Warnecke in the bottom of the eighth. St. Norbert managed to score three runs on one hit with one error and two walks. Junior Tom Ozlanski came on in relief of Warnecke to finish the game for AU.

With Norbert cutting the lead to 9-4, the Spartans answered with two runs in the top of the ninth inning. Davidson hit a lead-off triple and scored on a double by Payne. After advancing to third on a wild pitch, Payne scored on a sacrifice fly by
Ozlanski gave up a solo-home run in the bottom of the ninth inning and hit two Green Knights to make the game interesting at the end but AU and Ozlanski would hold on for the 11-5 win.

With the win, AU is now 38-9 overall. The 38 wins ties a single season record with the 1999 Spartans (38-10)

Next action for the Spartan baseball team comes tonight (Friday, May 18) when they take on #4 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in the 2012 Midwest Regional hosted by UW-Whitewater. AU will play at 7 pm in Whitewater, Wis.