Box Score Whitewater, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team earned a 6-0 victory at third-ranked and top-seeded UW-Whitewater Saturday morning in the first game of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tournament at Prucha Field at Miller Stadium. The fourth-seeded Eagles advance to play at 7 p.m. Saturday against the winner of the UW-Stevens Point (second seed) and UW-Oshkosh (third seed) contest. UW-Whitewater will play the loser of the UW-Stevens Point/UW-Oshkosh game at 4 p.m. Saturday.

The Eagles improve to 19-19 with the victory while the Warhawks drop to 33-6. UW-Whitewater, which suffered its second home loss of the season, had its 15-game overall winning streak snapped with Saturday's loss.

It is UW-L's third straight WIAC Tournament win over UW-Whitewater. The Eagles defeated the Warhawks twice last season in La Crosse, including 9-1 in the title contest.

UW-L's Tim Verthein (4-6) earned the complete-game victory over UW-Whitewater. He went 9.0 innings, allowing two hits and two walks while striking out seven. Verthein's seven strikeouts tied a season-high. It marks only the second shutout of the season for the Warhawks, who were limited to a season-low two hits. UW-Whitewater, ranked third on this week's D3baseball.com Top-25 Poll, were shutout 4-0 by Illinois Wesleyan University March 16. 

Marty Herum singled to open the bottom of the second for UW-Whitewater and the Warhawks were held hitless until the bottom of the seventh with Steve Bartlein's two-out single. Verthein retired 13 straight batters during one stretch Saturday.

The Eagles took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Alex Cordova doubled with one out and moved to third on Brooks Braga's single. Adam Cordova then reached on a fielder's choice to score Alex Cordova for the first run of the game.

The game remained 1-0 until the top of the eighth when UW-L scored three times on four hits. Brett Jacobson hit a solo home run with one out to make it 2-0. Josh Rowles followed with a ground-rule double and scored on Cole Cefalu's single for a 3-0 lead. Alex Cordova reached on a fielder's choice with Cefalu being retired for the second out, but Braga doubled down the right field line to knock in Cordova.

UW-L added two runs in the ninth. Garrett Novinski singled to start the inning and stole second with one out. He then scored on Trevor Burmeister's double to right center field to give the Eagles a 5-0 advantage. Burmeister later scored on a Warhawks' throwing error.

Eight of nine starters had a hit for UW-L, including Braga who finished 2-for-4 with an RBI. Alex Cordova scored twice.

Scott Plaza (6-1) suffered the loss for UW-Whitewater, going 7.2 innings, allowing seven hits and four runs with four strikeouts.