Parkside baseball earned a midweek split with Lewis on Wednesday afternoon at Historic Simmons Field, where the Flyers took game one 4-1 followed by a Rangers 4-2 win that included a solid team pitching performance and a grand slam. 
 
GAME ONE: Lewis 4, Parkside 1
The Lewis pitching staff was able to hold the Rangers off the scoreboard until the bottom of the sixth inning, where they already led 2-0. Ryan Hollander hit an RBI single up the middle to score Justin Bennett to make it a 2-1 game, but the Flyers added a pair of runs in the top of the seventh to push it to 4-1 and were able to hold off the Rangers in the seventh.
 
Hunter Weddel, who had a good series against Wayne State over the weekend, went 2-for-3 while Bennett went 1-for-2 with a run while Hollander went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Jake Macaluso suffered the loss after going 4.2 innings allowing one earned run with four strikeouts. Peyton Schneider pitched 1.1 innings scoreless as well.
 
GAME TWO: Parkside 4, Lewis 2
Parkside got all the offense they needed with one swing of the bat from Kurt Mlachnik, who hit his first home run of the season, a grand slam, in the bottom of the fourth inning to put the Rangers up 4-0. Lane Ochs, Niko Diaz and Weddel all came in to score on the homer.
 
The Rangers also got a good outing collectively from the pitching staff, where Keaton Kastberg earned his first win of the season after going 4.0 innings allowing three hits and one run with four strikeouts. Aaron Cusimano pitched 2.0 innings in relief while Nicholas Rana pitched a scoreless seventh inning to earn his first career save.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
The Rangers will hit the road over the weekend, battling Saginaw Valley State in a four-game GLIAC series starting on Friday. Parkside returns home next weekend against Davenport on May 3-5.