Tournament Page

APPLETON, Wis. – Grinnell College's baseball team went on a strong stretch run, winning four of its last five games of the regular season to punch its ticket to the Midwest Conference Tournament.
 
The Pioneers are the fourth seed in the four-team event, having gone 11-10 in league play and 23-17 overall. That is the most overall victories for the program since 2016.
 
Grinnell will play tourney host and top-seeded Lawrence University at 12:30 p.m. Friday at Appleton's Don Hawkins Field. That contest will be preceded by a matchup between second-seeded Beloit College and third-seeded Monmouth College.
 
The winner of the two-day tourney gets the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
 
In a three-game series last month in Appleton, Lawrence defeated Grinnell two of three games. The Vikings won the opener 10-7 and the third game 5-3, while the Pioneers ran away with the second game by a 12-3 count.
 
Grinnell ranks second in the MWC in batting with a .341 average and is third in ERA at 5.60. Mac McCain '25 is the MWC leader in RBIs with 36, while Connor Goodson '26  is second in slugging percentage (.788), on-base percentage (1.278) and home runs (eight). Top Grinnell batters in MWC play are Stuart Cash '27 (.419), Ben Skiles '28 (.416) and Goodson (.412). On the mound, Shea Goel '28 ranks fifth in ERA at 3.58 and Jakob Runkel '26 and Ian Feld '25 rank in the top 10 for strikeouts with 33 and 26, respectively.
 
Lawrence, 14-7 in the MWC and 20-17 overall, ranks second in the league in ERA at 4.85 and fifth in batting with a.295 average. Taylor Freeman leads the league in batting average (.458), slugging percentage (.892), runs scored (34), home runs (10) and stolen bases (22). On the mound, Elden Santana ranks third in ERA at 1.96 and fourth in strikeouts with 34.