MOLINE, Ill. – The Augustana Vikings baseball team remains at Swanson Stadium on Thursday for a non-conference contest against the Knox Prairie Fire.

The Vikings hold a 27-6 record, 11-2 in conference, and are coming off a 13-2 victory in seven innings over the Eureka Red Devils on Tuesday, April 25. Augustana's offense hummed early, scoring four runs in the bottom of the first inning sparked by two runs from wild pitches. Dymitri Kanellakis hit a single to drive in the third score of the frame, followed by Michael Aragons RBI groundout three at-bats later to go ahead 4-0. The Vikings surged for six runs in the second inning to go up by 10, beginning with an RBI single from Ozanic prior to Chase Maifield mashing a two-run single to right center. Alec McGinnis struck a two-RBI single of his own the ensuing at-bat before a Cole Green sacrifice fly to left field to plate the 10th run. Eureka added their lone two runs of the game in the third to trim the deficit to nine, but one run sprinkled across each of the next three innings for the Vikings pushed the game to its 13-2 final. Maifield, McGinnis, and Green each batted in two runs to lead a 12-hit performance from Augustana. 

Knox is currently on a six-game losing streak with an overall record of 7-22, 1-14 in the Midwest Conference. On April 23, the Prairie Fire finished their series with Ripon, falling to the Red Hawks by a score of 10-7. Ripon jumped to a two-run lead in the bottom of the first before Knox leveled the score in the third at 2-2. The Red Hawks surged to a seven-run lead with five runs in the fourth inning and one run each in the fifth and sixth. Knox slowly re-entered the game with three runs in the seventh and two in the eighth to cut Ripon's advantage to two, but the Red Hawks held the Prairie Fire in check in the ninth while adding a score to put the game at its 10-7 final. Evan Laws plated a game-high three RBI in the loss. 

Augustana possesses a 42-28-1 edge over Knox in the all-time series, with the most recent meeting between the two clubs resulting in a 9-0 home win for the Vikings on May 3, 2022. Augie got out to a strong start, scoring three runs in the first inning and adding four more in the fourth to take the lead 7-0. The Vikings scored two more runs in the eighth inning to win the non-conference game 9-0. Starting pitcher Dylan Grammer worked through the sixth inning, striking out nine batters to help keep the Prairie Fire scoreless, while teammate Anthony Sus had a near-perfect three-inning stretch in relief, striking out seven batters. 

The non-conference battle against the Prairie Fire begins at 7:00 p.m. from Swanson Stadium. Stream link can be found here.