Whitewater, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team dropped a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) doubleheader at UW-Whitewater Saturday afternoon to open league play. UW-Whitewater took the opener, 4-1, and the nightcap, 9-4. The Warhawks, ranked fourth on D3baseball.com, improve to 14-2 overall and 2-0 in the WIAC while the Eagles, ranked 15th on D3baseball.com, fall to 10-7 overall and 0-2 in the league.
In the opener, UW-Whitewater took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second on Mike Aiello's two-out RBI single to knock in Will Helbing. The Warhawks made it 2-0 in the third inning as Matt Wary scored on Brett Krause's double play groundout. Blake Fleischman's two-out two-run home run gave UW-Whitewater a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth. Trent Borgardt scored on the play after a one-out single.
UWL cut the lead to 4-1 in the top of the sixth.
Nate Heili singled with one out and advanced to second on a passed ball. He moved to third on a wild pitch as
Brady Stolzman walked with one out. Heili then scored on
Alex Robson's fielder's choice. UWL had the tying run at the plate in the ninth inning, but a pair of ground outs ended the game.
Caleb Boushley (3-2) took the loss for UWL, pitching his third complete-game of the season. He went 8.0 innings, allowing seven hits, four runs and two walks while striking out nine. The Eagles finished with seven hits in the opener as Heili and
Brennan Schmitt each went 2-for-4 with Heili scoring UWL's lone run.
Austin Jones (5-0) earned the win for UW-Whitewater, going 7.0 innings, allowing five hits, one run (unearned) and two walks with seven strikeouts. Mike Nompleggi picked up his third save of the year, pitching 1.0 inning, allowing one hit and one walk with one strikeout. Seven different players had a hit for the Warhawks.
UW-Whitewater scored single runs in the second, third and fourth innings in the nightcap to take a 3-0 lead. Jordan Kuczynski had an RBI single in the second inning while Fleischman (third inning) and Kuczynski (fourth) each hit a solo home run.
The Warhawks added two runs in the fifth to lead 5-0 on a Krause sacrifice fly and Steve Chamberlain RBI double. UW-Whitewater tallied four runs in the seventh for a 9-0 advantage. Chamberlain had an RBI double, Kuczynski a two-run home run and Aiello a run-scoring double.
UWL got on the board in the top of the ninth with four runs on three hits.
Craig Schneider started the inning with a pinch-hit double followed by a Heili walk. Pinch-hitter
Jack Dwyer walked to load the bases and Schmitt followed with a two-run double scoring Schneider and Heili to make it 9-2. After a UW-Whitewater pitching change, Dwyer scored on Robson's single to cut the lead to 9-3 and
Mitch Sutton's RBI groundout scored Schmitt to finish the scoring.
Jameson Lavery (3-1) suffered the loss, going 5.0 innings, allowing eight hits, five runs and two walks with two strikeouts. UWL had five hits in the game with Robson finishing 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Heath Renz (3-0) picked up the victory for UW-Whitewater, pitching 7.0 innings, allowing two hits and two walks with five strikeouts. The Warhawks totaled 13 hits as Kuczynski and Chamberlain each went 3-for-4 with two runs scored. Kuczynski finished with four RBI and Chamberlain two.
The teams will play another doubleheader Sunday, April 9 at noon.
