Winter Haven, Fla. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team, ranked seventh on the D3baseball.com Top-25 Poll, has opened the Russmatt Central Florida Invitational with a pair of wins over ranked opponents. The Eagles, now 3-1 on the season, earned a 6-2 victory over 25th-ranked Concordia University Chicago (Ill.) March 11 and 6-4 over 20th-ranked The College of New Jersey March 12.
Caleb Boushley (1-1) earned the win over Concordia Chicago (Ill.), going 7.0 innings while allowing four hits, two runs (both unearned) and two walks with six strikeouts.
Brock Rude went 2.0 innings, allowing three hits and one walk while striking out two.
After Concordia Chicago (Ill.) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third, UWL's
Brady Stolzman delivered a two-out two-run double to score
Joel Zyhowski and
Nate Heili to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth. The Cougars tied the game in the bottom of the fifth, but sacrifice flies from the Eagles'
Alex Brown and
Mitch Sutton in the top of the sixth made it 4-2. UWL added to its lead in the top of the seventh on
Sam Prissel's two-run single to knock in Zyhowski and
Brennan Schmitt.
UWL finished with eight hits in the game as Prissel and Heili each had two.
Versus The College of New Jersey,
Jameson Lavery (2-0) picked up the victory with
Caleb Willems earning his first save. Lavery went 7.1 innings, allowing 12 hits, four runs and three walks with four strikeouts. Willems went 1.2 innings, allowing one hit and one walk with two strikeouts.
The Eagles took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second on
Alex Robson's RBI single knocking
Nate Roethle. TCNJ tied the game in the top of the fourth, but UWL responded with four runs in the bottom of the fifth to lead 5-1. The Eagles scored their four runs on one hit with the Lions finishing with two errors in the inning. Heili scored the go-ahead run on an error before Robson's single made it 3-1 to score Stolzman. Schmitt's sacrifice fly scored Roethle for a 4-1 lead and Sutton scored on a wild pitch.
The Eagles added to their lead in the bottom of the seventh as Sutton came in on Schmitt's single. The Lions cut the deficit to 6-4 with a pair of runs in the top of the eighth, but left two runners on base to end the inning. After a lead-off walk to start the ninth, Willems got a double play groundout and game ending strikeout.
UWL had seven hits in the game as TCNJ committed four errors. Robson finished 4-for-4 for the Eagles with two RBI while Sutton went 2-for-2 with two runs.
UWL returns to action Monday, March 13 versus William Paterson University (N.J.) at 10 a.m. (Central) in Winter Haven.
