Auburndale, Fla. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team opened its 2018 spring break trip with a 12-11 victory over 10th-ranked University of Southern Maine Saturday afternoon in the Russmatt Central Florida Invitational. The Eagles, receiving votes on the D3baseball.com Top-25 Poll, improve to 2-0 on the season. Southern Maine, ranked 10th on D3baseball.com, dropped its season-opener.

UWL tallied five times in the top of the first Saturday, highlighted by Brennan Schmitt's grand slam. The Eagles scored their five runs on two hits in the first inning while the Huskies' pitchers walked two batters, hit two others and had a pair of wild pitches. Carson Youngquist drew a bases-loaded walk in the first inning for UWL's first run of the game.

Southern Maine came back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first to cut the lead to 5-2 on Jake Dexter's two-run double. The Huskies tied the game with three runs in the bottom of the second inning on Andrew Olszak's two-run double and Dylan Hapworth's run-scoring single. 

UWL regained the lead in the top of fourth with three runs on four hits to lead 8-5. Luke Schmitt's double scored Nate Heili, who had reached on a Southern Maine error to start the inning, to give the Eagles a 6-5 lead. Jack Dwyer and Brennan Schmitt had RBI singles to make it 8-5.

Southern Maine responded in the bottom of the frame with five runs and a 10-8 lead. Devin Warren had a two-run triple to cut the lead to 8-7 while Hapworth's sacrifice fly tied the game. Zach Quintal followed with a go-ahead triple to score Olszak and Dexter's RBI groundout knocked in Quintal for a 10-8 lead.

The Eagles cut the deficit to 10-9 in the top of the fifth on Luke Schmitt's single and scored three runs in the top of the sixth to take a 12-10 advantage. Nate Roethle's double in the sixth tied the game and Zach Carney followed with a two-run home run for a 12-10 lead.

The Huskies' cut the lead to 12-11 in the bottom of the eighth as Sam Troiano scored on Hapworth's groundout. Southern Maine had the bases-loaded with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but UWL's Mason McMahon retired Troiano on a strikeout and Warren on a fly ball to end the game.

UWL finished with 15 hits in the game with Shane Coker going 3-for-4 with two runs. Luke Schmitt, Dwyer, Brennan Schmitt, Roethle and Carney each had two hits. Seven starters recorded a hit for the Eagles while eight scored a run.

Zach Pronschinske (1-0) earned the win for UWL, pitching 4.2 innings in relief. He allowed three hits, one run and one walk while striking out four. McMahon picked up the save, going 1.0 inning, allowing two hits and one walk with one strikeout.

Southern Maine totaled 16 hits with Kip Richard going 4-for-5 with two runs. Troiano finished 3-for-5 with three runs. Ben Lambert (0-1) suffered the loss for the Huskies, pitching 2.0 innings, allowing three hits, three runs and one walk with two strikeouts.

UWL returns to action Sunday, March 11 versus Spalding University (Ky.) at 8:30 a.m. The Eagles will then face Triton College (Ill.) in a JV game at 12:30 p.m.