TOPEKA, Kan. -- The Washburn baseball team split its final doubleheader of the regular season on Saturday, April 25, taking the first game, 6-5, in walkoff fashion before dropping a 5-3 contest in the second game.
 
WU (30-18, 22-14 MIAA) reached the 30-win plateau for the first time since 2000, and won its third MIAA series of the year, finishing the regular season with eight wins in the final 10 games.
 
The Ichabods are currently tied for fourth in the MIAA standings, with official pairings for next weekend's MIAA Tournament announced Sunday evening.
 
Game 1: WU 6, UNK 5
The first game of Saturday's doubleheader saw the Ichabods claim their second comeback, walkoff win of the series in 6-5 fashion over UNK.
 
Home runs hurt the Ichabods in the first game as UNK took a 5-0 lead through two innings, hitting a three-run home run in the first and a two-run blast in the second.
 
WU threatened in the first and third, loading the bases with two outs in the opening frame and putting runners on the corners in the third. Both times, however, the shutout remained intact.
 
The Ichabods broke through in the fourth off Tanner Johnson's two-run home run, driving in Corey Gragg, who singled in the previous at-bat, to make it 5-2. 
 
In the bottom of the sixth, David Gauntt took the first pitch of the inning on a line over the right field line for home run No. 14 on the year, helping the Ichabods close the deficit further.  The rally continued with back-to-back singles from Connor Crimmins and Tanner Triggs, putting runners on the corners with no outs.  Later in the innings with two out and a runner on second, Johnson came up with his third RBI of the day on a double into left to score Cole Gardner (who pinch ran for Triggs) for WU's fourth run of the day.
 
Down to its last chance, Parker Gibson led off the bottom of the seventh with a double down the right field line, moving to third on Riley Krane's sacrifice bunt.  Kyle Carnahan finished the comeback with a walkoff, two-run home run, blasting the first pitch he saw over the center field wall.
 
Hank Wellborn (3-2) earned the win on Senior Day, tossing the final two innings in shutout fashion with three strikeouts, entering after Dan Gabler threw five innings in the start, giving up five runs on five hits with five strikeouts.
 
Carnahan was 3-for-4 with two RBI on the day and Johnson finished with two hits and three RBI.
 
Game 2: UNK 5, WU 3
WU saw its comeback bid fall short in the second game of the day, just missing the series sweep with a 5-3 loss.
 
Krane gave the Ichabods an early 1-0 lead with a leadoff home run in the bottom of the first, just clearing the left field foul pole on a solo shot.
 
Two bases loaded walks, an Ichabod error and a two-run double pushed UNK to a 5-1 lead in the third, before WU got one back in the bottom of the sixth off Carnahan's second home run of the day.
 
Double plays ended WU threats in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, though the Ichabods made things interesting in the ninth. 
 
Dylan Turpin led off the ninth with a pinch-hit, solo home run to cut the deficit to two (5-3), and singles from Gragg and Payton Soicher put two on with one out.  Later in the inning, WU had runners on second and third with two outs, but couldn't come up with their third straight walkoff in the loss.

Eric Schmid (4-3) took the loss for the Ichabods, tossing 2.1 innings with 5 runs allowed (three earned) on two hits.  Tanner Kilmer three 3.2 innings in relief and Hank Wellborn, Greg Mason and Ryne Dowling each pitched one inning. 

Krane and Soicher each had two hits as WU scored all three runs on home runs.