AUBURNDALE, Fla. – Seniors Josh Planko (Northville, Mich./Northville) and Raymond McCaskey (Colorado Springs, Colo./Manitou Springs) combined for nine hits, and the bullpen closed out the game with 4 1/3 scoreless innings to help the Macalester College baseball team erase a 4-0 deficit and beat Dominican University, 5-4 Saturday morning at Lake Myrtle Sports Complex. The game was the first in Florida for the Scots, who improve to 5-4 on the season. The Stars, who hail from Schaumburg, Ill., are now 6-5.

Dominican put four runs on the board, including three in the third inning, to lead, 4-0 after five innings. After registering five hits but leaving seven runners on base over the first five innings, Macalester began its comeback in the top of the sixth. Planko singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch for sophomore Connor Davison (Redwood City, Calif./Woodside), who hit a two-out, pinch-hit single to bring home Planko with the Scots' first run of the game.

Macalester broke through in the seventh. McCaskey led off with a triple and scored on a single by first year John McMurray (Washington, D.C./Sidwell Friends). McMurray moved to third when a pickoff attempt went into right field, then an infield single by senior Niko Alexander (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) allowed McMurray to come home to make the score 4-3. The hit was Alexander's 100th base hit of his career.

Still in the seventh with two out, Planko singled and Alexander advanced to second for senior Nathan Gumagay (Potomac, Md./Winston Churchill), who laced a single to center that plated Alexander with the tying run. Then in the eighth, McCaskey hit a one-out single, stole second and raced home on an RBI single from McMurray for a 5-4 lead.

Meanwhile, the Scots' bullpen was keeping the Stars off the scoreboard over the final 4 1/3 innings. Senior Jamie Loizeaux (Albany, Calif./Albany) retired the final batter in the fifth and gave up a single in the sixth before inducing a lineout and a grounder to short that juniors Holden Peacock (Houston, Texas/Kinkaid School) and Braden LaChapelle (Bethesda, Md./Walter Johnson), along with Planko, turned into an inning-ending double play. Senior Tommy Ball (Wayne, Pa./The Shipley School) fanned two batters in a scoreless seventh. Senior Evan Kang (Sherman Oaks, Calif./Village Christian) took the ball to start the eighth and allowed no runs on a hit and two walks while striking out two over the final two innings to earn the save. With a runner on first and two out in the ninth, Macalester turned another double play to end the game.

Planko was 5-for-5 at the plate with one run scored, while McCaskey went 4-for-5 with a triple, two runs and a stolen base. McMurray delivered two hits and drove in two runs. Senior Ben King (Chicago, Ill./Whitney M. Young Magnet) started on the mound and allowed four runs, one earned, on six hits while striking out nine and walking one in 4 2/3 innings. The nine strikeouts match King's career high.

Macalester continues play at the RussMatt Central Florida Tournament on Sunday, March 15 with a game against Ripon College. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:15 p.m. Eastern at Chain of Lakes Park in Winter Haven, Fla.