Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

MOLINE, Ill. -  Walter White (East Peoria HS, East Peoria, Ill.) got a complete game victory in the opener and Augustana came from behind to win game two Friday in an 8-2, 9-6 doubleheader sweep of Millikin at Swanson Stadium/Brunner Field. The two wins, combined with a North Central (26-8 overall and 13-6 in the conference) loss at Carthage, gives the Vikings (26-12, 14-6) sole possession of the CCIW lead with one game to play. A win in Sunday's conference finale against the Big Blue (16-21, 5-15) would clinch Augustana's second CCIW title in three years.
 
AUGUSTANA 8, MILLIKIN 2
 
White was superb in the opener, improving to 7-1 with his second consecutive complete game. After surrendering single runs in the first two innings—including one that was unearned—he shut Millikin down, giving up just four hits and fanning 13 over the final seven frames. He struck out 14 on the night, giving him 96 on the season, just eight shy of John Benedetti's single-season Viking record.
 
The Augustana offense scored in all but the second and eighth innings.
 
The only crooked number the Vikings put up came in the seventh. With his team leading 5-2, sophomore Jack Hallmark (Cherry Creek HS, Evergreen, Colo.) led off with an infield hit. After Zak Owens came on in relief of Big Blue starter Adam Zuk, freshman Ryan Kairis (Marist HS, Chicago, Ill.) sacrificed Hallmark to second. Senior Alex Fluehr (Harlem HS, Loves Park, Ill.) drew a walk and classmate Nathan Gray (Rock Island HS, Rock Island, Ill.) blasted an Owens offering over the fence in right for his third home run of the year.
 
The Big Blue took a 1-0 after a half inning. Mason Bruce led off the game with a single and scored on a double by Julian Gutierrez. The Vikings answered in the bottom half. Senior Jeff Prior (Rock Canyon HS, Lone Tree, Colo.) reached on a one-out double to left and scored on a Trace Gingerich (Sherrard HS, Sherrard, Ill.) ground out.
 
After Millikin tallied an unearned run in the second, the hosts tied it in the bottom of the third and took the lead in the fourth. Gingerich had a one-out single to right and scored the tying run on Kairis' RBI infield hit. In the fourth, it was Prior with the one-out single. He scored the go-ahead run on a Gingerich hit.
 
Fluehr had an inside-the-park home run in the fifth and Augustana added an unearned run in the sixth.
 
Prior, Gingerich, Kairis, John Swiderski (Geneva HS, Geneva, Ill.) and Carter Amundsen (Sheboygan South HS, Sheboygan, Wis.) each had two of the Vikings' 13 hits. Fluehr and Prior scored twice and Gray knocked in three runs and Gingerich a pair.
 
AUGUSTANA 9, MILLIKIN 6
 
Trailing 5-2 going to the bottom of the fifth, Augustana put seven runs on the board in the next three innings to claim the nightcap.
 
The Vikings cut the deficit to 5-4 with a pair in the bottom of the fifth. Prior had an RBI single and junior Mitchel Ruh (Hinckley-Big Rock HS, Big Rock, Ill.) drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.
 
Millikin scored its fourth unearned run of the game in the top of the sixth, but Coach Greg Wallace's offense kept plugging away. In the bottom half, a sacrifice fly by Gray plated Hallmark to get the hosts within a run and Prior delivered Kairis with another RBI single to tie it at 6-6.
 
In the seventh, Big Blue reliever John Fisher retired the first two batters he faced, but Hallmark touched him for a double down the right field line. Kairis then plugged the gap in right center for a triple that scored Hallmark with the go-ahead run. After a walk to Fluehr, Gray doubled to left center, scoring both runners for a 9-6 Augustana lead.
 
Junior Kyle McGinley (Mullen HS, Denver, Colo.) came on in relief of Zach Morgenstern (Peoria Notre Dame HS, East Peoria, Ill.) to start the eighth and held Millikin scoreless for the final two innings to earn his second save in his last two appearances.
 
Both starters, Morgenstern and the big Blue's Max Paolicchi, had it going early. Each team was hitless through three before Gutierrez put Millikin up 1-0 with a solo homer in the fourth. Ruh's two run double in the bottom half put the Vikings back on top temporarily, but the Big Blue tallied four—including three unearned—in the fifth to go up 4-2.
 
Prior finished 3-for-5 with two RBI. Gray, Hallmark and Kairis each had a pair of hits and Gray and Ruh knocked in three runs apiece.
 
Morgenstern worked seven innings and gave up just three hits. He walked three and fanned eight to pick up his sixth win in nine decisions.