WINTER HAVEN, Fla. -- The Augustana Vikings baseball team came up short against the No. 16 ranked UW-La Crosse Eagles on Sunday at the RussMatt Invitational, falling by a score of 6-3.

Augie was first on the board in its opening at-bat, capitalizing on an Eagles error with an RBI ground-rule double from Kaileb Hackman to give the team an early 1-0 lead. The two squads went scoreless in each of the second and third inning, but the Eagles strung together their first runs in the bottom of the fourth. UW-La Crosse strung together four hits in the four-run frame to make it a 4-1 lead. Adam Bendoraitis got out of the jam in relief after forcing a double play after just one pitch.

The Vikings collected a pair of hits in each of the fifth and sixth inning, and saw a leadoff base runner in the seventh, but were unable to inch closer. La Crosse added one more to its total in the sixth and another in the eighth to stretch the differential out to 6-1 entering the final inning. Augustana threatened in the top of the ninth, pushing across two runs after beginning the frame with a walk and a double from Alec McGinnis. Daniele Mosele's single to left field brought in the second run of the game for Augie, followed by a sacrifice fly from Alex Simon to cut the deficit to three. A ground out to second ended the threat and gave the Eagles the three-run win.

Augustana out-hit UW-La Crosse 10-9 in the loss and was led by a trio of two-hit performances from Hackman, McGinnis, and Mosele. Bendoraitis struck out four in nearly four innings of work on the mound.

The Vikings drop to 8-6 with the loss and will close out their Florida trip on Tuesday against Kalamazoo.