LAWTON, Okla. – The Cameron Aggies (17-8, 10-5 LSC) completed a second day sweep of the Augustana Vikings (7-9, 0-0 NSIC) and got a 3-1 series victory behind the bats of Chase Larsson and Kenny Held at McCord Field on Tuesday afternoon.
Larsson and Held combined for 9-for-14 at the plate with a combined six home runs, 11 RBIs and 21 total bases. Held alone had three homers in the nightcap and tied a single game school record with his performance.
In game one, Held also got his first work on the bump this season as he worked four innings while recording six strikeouts and allowing five runs and two hits. He also walked eight batters.
The Vikings struck first in the third on a single from Charlie Dubanoski that squeaked through the infield to bring in two runs.
In the fourth, Augustana added another run off the bat of Brian Voigt who homered to right field to make it 3-0.
The Aggies were able to get a pair of runs platted in the fourth as Chase Larsson homered to left center to lead off the inning. A pair of doubles from Joe Halley and Nate Valdez brought in another run to cut the Viking lead to 3-2.
Augustana exploded for five runs in the fifth before the Aggies began their rally.
Down 8-2, CU cut the margin to 8-6 with a four-run fifth inning behind a Held inside-the-park-homerun off the right field wall.
Held got to work again in the seventh with a lead off triple and was plated in on the tying homerun shot from Halley.
Heading into the eighth, the Aggies set the Vikings down without issue and got another lead off triple from Taylor Lyons. With a 2-0 count and the winning run on third, Dawson ripped a shot to the gap in right center to plate the winning run.
Corey Davidson picked up the win in 2.1 innings of relief pitching. The normal weekend starter gave up just two hits and pitched shut out baseball.
Vikings reliever Bret Severtson was tagged with the loss after coming into the game with an 8-6 lead.
Game two looked more like a heavyweight boxing match and less like a baseball game as the teams traded big scoring innings and home runs to go along with the lead throughout.
The Vikings got on the board first again, with three runs in the third innings but were evened up in the bottom half with Held’s first home run of the game.
Augustana added four more in the fourth and looked to be pulling away but the Ags bounced past to put up six runs of their own to make it a 9-7 Cameron lead.
Held’s second homer of the game came in the fourth and followed a three-run Larsson bomb to right center.
The visitors knotted it up in the sixth with a Nate Alfson two-run round tripper that barely cleared the left field wall, but in the fashion of the game, CU responded in the same inning.
Held’s third homer proved to be the game winner, a 1-1 shot to right field to put CU up for the final time, 10-9.
Kaleb Brawner earned his first victory of the season in 2.2 innings of work after allowing just three hits and three runs in his first extended appearance of the season. James Rhodes added the save, closing out the final inning in order.
The Aggies return to the diamond on Friday when they step back into conference play and travel to Lone Star Conference leader Incarnate Word for a three-game series beginning at 1 p.m. in San Antonio.
