The Aurora University baseball team faced an elimination game in the 2015 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament on Friday morning against Marian University. The Spartans trailed early and then held on to win and advance 10-9.

Marian got to AU starting pitcher Cody Love for two runs in the third inning but the Spartan offense responded immediately with two runs to tie the score in the bottom of the inning. A lead-off single from Steven Jaquez and one out double from Danny Walczak set up Tanner Oyamaian (rbi ground out) and Dillon Popovich (rbi single) to knot up the score.

Not to be out done though, Marian added two more runs against Love in the fourth to retake the lead at 4-2. The Spartans did load the bases in the bottom half of the inning but came up empty and the score remained 4-2 in favor of Marian. In the fifth though, the Spartans started to chip away at the deficit. A one out double from Popovich produced a run when he scored on a Jeff Gersch ground out.

AU Head Coach Adam Stevens turned to relief pitcher Kyle Manske in the sixth and he handled the Sabres to bring the hungry Spartan bats back to the plate. With one out, the Spartans went to work, scoring five times on three hits and were helped by one error and two walks. The big hit came off the bat of Adam Lipscomb who lined a triple to right center that cleared the bases for a 8-4 lead.

Once again Marian responded with two runs in the top of the seventh to keep the Spartans within reach at 8-6. And just as they had done earlier, the Spartans responded right back, scoring two runs in the bottom half of the inning. Three singles, one being a run scoring single from Oymaian to score Sparks and a sacrifice fly out by Popovich to score Walczak did the damage.

After a quiet eighth inning, the Spartans once again found themselves holding a lead in the ninth inning for the second straight day of the NACC Tournament. And the Spartans kept the AU faithful on the edge of their seats, allowing three runs on two hits and a walk. Spartan Henry Erickson was tabbed from the pen with no outs and two on and calmly got a ground out and then a line out to Sparks at third who then doubled off the runner on first to end the game.

With the win, AU is now 23-19, while Manske improved to 5-3 and Erickson earned his fourth save of the season.

The Spartans will take on Concordia University Wisconsin at 4:00 p.m. in Mequon, Wisconsin in another elimination game at the NACC Tournament.