ROCK ISLAND, Illinois - The Prairie Fire baseball team dropped a non-conference game to No. 25 Augustana on Thursday night.

Knox scored four runs in the top of the first inning thanks to hits by Holden Jones, Brayden Bathgate, Evan Laws, Nick Stan, and Braden Ogden. Jason Clark drove in the first run with a bases loaded sacrifice fly to left on a scorching liner, while Stan drove in one run and Ogden drove in two.

The Vikings responded with 9 runs in the bottom half to take an early lead. Knox managed just one more hit in the game and Augustana put the finishing touches on the game with eight runs in the sixth inning to secure an early 21-4 victory.

Ogden led Knox with two hits.

"We came out firing against one of the best teams in the country," said associate head coach James Clark. "We walked too many guys and Augustana took advantage of it. I think it was a good lesson to play a team like this to see what a top-25 team looks like. We can play with teams like this when we play our game, but we too often get caught up in trying to survive. If we limit the big innings our defense can keep us in games, but not when we panic and start walking people. We didn't give up much loud contact, but Augustana put the ball in play when they needed to."

Knox will return to action as they host Lawrence for a three-game conference set starting on April 29.