Box Score La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team opened its 2016 home schedule with a 14-4 win over The College of St. Scholastica (Minn.) Saturday afternoon at Copeland Park. The Eagles, ranked 18th on this week's D3baseball.com Top-25 Poll, improve to 9-4 on the season while the Saints drop to 7-6.
UWL scored four times on four hits in the bottom of the first.
Joel Zyhowski was hit-by-pitch to lead-off the inning and scored on
Alex Cordova's RBI double to right center field.
Taylor Kohlwey followed with a single advancing Cordova to third.
Justin Anderson's single knocked in Cordova to make it 2-0. Kohlwey came in on
Carter Hoffman's RBI groundout and Anderson scored on
Travis Buxton-Verstegen's single for a 4-0 lead.
St. Scholastica (Minn.) cut the lead to 4-1 in the top of the second with Haydn Lanoue scoring an unearned run on Drew Colvard's double to left field. UWL responded with five runs in the bottom of the second on four hits. Kohlwey's two-run double gave the Eagles a 6-1 lead while Anderson's RBI double made it 7-1. Hoffman added an RBI groundout and Buxton-Verstegen a sacrifice fly.
The Saints tallied a pair of runs in the top of third on a Steven Neutzling RBI single and Chris Olson sacrifice fly to make it 9-3, but Cordova's RBI single in the bottom of the inning scoring Zyhowski gave the Eagles a 10-3 advantage. Colvard's RBI groundout cut the lead to 10-4 in the top of the fourth before
Alex Brown's RBI double in the bottom of the frame scoring Buxton-Verstegen made it 11-4.
UWL added three runs in the bottom of the fifth on an Anderson RBI double and two-run double from Hoffman.
Jameson Lavery (3-0) picked up the win for UWL, pitching 5.0 innings, allowing seven hits, four runs (three earned) and two walks while striking out six. The Eagles finished with 14 hits as seven of the nine starters recorded at least one. All nine starters reached base in Saturday's game. The top-six in UWL's line-up went 13-for-20 with 13 runs and 13 RBI. Cordova and Anderson both went 3-for-4 with Cordova finishing with two runs and two RBI while Anderson had three runs and three RBI. Zyhowski scored four runs and Kohlwey three while Hoffman finished with four RBI.
Gino Strebing (1-1) suffered the loss for St. Scholastica (Minn.), going 1.0 inning, allowing seven hits, eight runs and one walk. The Saints totaled eight hits as Colvard finished 2-for-3 with an RBI.
The teams return to action Sunday, April 3 with a doubleheader at 11 a.m. at Copeland Park.
