HANCOCK — To suggest that a 4-28 season has gone according to plan would beg the simple question: whose plan? The Finlandia Lions baseball team, who enters their final regular season weekend against Wisconsin-La Crosse, has gone 1-19 thus far in their inaugural season in the highly competitive Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC).

In the last three years, four pitchers and an outfielder have been drafted out of the conference. One other pitcher, Jordan Zimmerman, a 2007 second round pick of the Washington Nationals, is a foundational piece of the Detroit Tigers’ rotation.

Lions manager Evan Brandt has been stressing all season to his players just how tough the WIAC actually is. As they prepare for the final weekend of the year, he thinks the reality is beginning to sink in.

“It’s not easy for them,” said Brandt. “They are not used to playing teams like this. They are not used to having teams be able to run out pitching staffs like these teams do.

“I hoping this is a positive experience and that we grow from it.”

Last weekend, the Lions took on the third-place Wisconsin-Platteville Pioneers. The Pioneers took all three games played on Friday in a rare three-game day. The Pioneers then came back Sunday with another victory in the final game of the series.

While it seems like a lot to play three games in a day, the reality was the two teams played seven-inning games, which meant 21 innings total, just three more than a typical 18-inning day over two games. Brandt felt that meant his team had no excuse for their efforts.

“It only turns out to be three extra innings of baseball for us, but splitting it up into three games is tough,” he said. “It’s not easy to manage that pitching staff at that point.

“The theme of every weekend, if you take walks and errors off the board, we look like a good team. If you put them on the board, which we have been doing, it doesn’t look very good.”

On the bright side, senior Joey Krug had a strong day on the mound in the final game Friday. After surrendering the first run on a hit batter, he gave up three more runs on a double to left center. The Pioneers added just one more run in the third, as Krug held the Pioneers to five runs on four hits.

While he coupled that with an 0-for-4 performance of his own at the plate, Brandt was still pleased with what Krug gave him.

“That big inning against Joey in the first inning of his outing, they just jumped on a couple of pitches he left over the plate,” said Brandt. “He did a good job of coming back on that, we just didn’t help him.

“After the first inning, he only gave up one hit and no runs.”

Already on the day, Krug had doubled to left in the third inning of the opener, knocking in Brandon Teichman and Patrick Coles. Unfortunately, those were the only two runs the Lions scored in the contest.

In Game Two, he went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. In Sunday’s contest, he homered to left, tying a school record with his 11th career home run.

This weekend, Krug and the Lions are back at it as they face the Eagles. The Eagles are 20-12 overall and 15-5 in WIAC play. They come into this weekend having gone 2-2 last weekend against WIAC-leading Wisconsin-Whitewater in a series that included a pair of one-run wins.

The Lions are likely to see Mason McMahon, Connor Cook and Jack Mizgalski, as all three have seven starts each on the mound with Cook sporting a 4-1 record.

All three are tough to hit, with McMahon’s opponents hitting just .152 off of him and Cook’s hitting just .231.

“Connor Cook went in and threw a no-hitter against the No. 1 team in the country a couple of weeks ago,” said Brandt. “He’s a stud. He pitched in the Northwoods League with the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders and they won that league.

“Mason McMahon, the kid has an unbelievable strikeout percentage. I think he was a preseason All-American. Those two guys are going to be tough.”

Carson Youngquist drives the Eagles’ offense, hitting .355 with four homers and 25 RBIs. He also has nine doubles. Brennan Schmitt is also solid, hitting .321 with a team-high 12 doubles, four homers and a team-high 27 RBIs.

GAME TIMES

The Lions and Eagles are set to play doubleheaders Friday and Saturday with opening pitch Friday set for noon and opening pitch for Saturday set for 1 p.m.