La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team dropped a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) doubleheader to UW-Stevens Point Saturday night at Copeland Park. The Pointers won the opener, 7-3, and the nightcap, 4-3. UWL falls to 13-8 overall and 5-3 in the WIAC while UW-Stevens Point improves to 17-3 overall and 9-0 in the conference.
The games were moved to La Crosse due to poor field conditions at UW-Stevens Point.
In the opener, UWL took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on
Nate Heili's lead-off home run. The Eagles are the visiting team for the four-game weekend series. UWL made it 3-0 in the top of the fourth as
Brady Stolzman and
Alex Robson scored on
Mitch Sutton's two-out double.
UW-Stevens Point tallied five times in the bottom of the fourth to take a 5-3 advantage, highlighted by Tommy Duddleston's bases-loaded triple. The Pointers added two more runs in the sixth on Ryan Stanicek's two-out RBI double.
Mason McMahon (3-1) took the loss for UWL, pitching 5.2 innings, allowing eight hits, seven runs (six earned) and four walks while striking out 10. The Eagles finished with eight hits with
Zach Carney and Robson each finishing with two.
Cole Erickson (5-0) picked up the victory for UW-Stevens Point. He went 7.0 innings, allowing seven hits, three runs and five walks with six strikeouts. The Pointers totaled 10 hits with Duddleston finishing 3-for-5 with three RBI and two runs. Stanicek went 2-for-3 with three RBI and one run.
In the nightcap, UW-Stevens Point got on the scoreboard first in the bottom of the fifth as Christian Zamudio scored an unearned run on a UWL throwing error. The Pointers added two runs in the bottom of the seventh on a Zamudio RBI single and Will Iloncaie run-scoring double.
The Eagles cut the deficit to 3-2 in the top of the eighth without the benefit of a hit. UWL drew three walks and had a pair of hit-by-pitches. Stolzman was hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded to cut the lead to 3-1 and
Cal McClellan drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 3-2, but the Eagles left the bases loaded after a fielder's choice.
Lucas Luedtke's RBI single knocked in Stanicek in the bottom of the eighth to give UW-Stevens Point a 4-2 lead.
Shane Coker hit a lead-off home run in the top of the ninth to make it 4-3, but the next three batters were retired.
Connor Cook (2-4) suffered the loss, going 7.0 innings, allowing seven hits, three runs (two earned) and three walks with eight strikeouts. UWL had two hits in the game.
Nathan Mulzer (4-1) earned the win for the Pointers, pitching 7.0 innings. He allowed one hit and two walks with 12 strikeouts. Drew Spaeth picked up his third save of the year, going 1.1 innings, allowing one hit, one run and one walks while striking out two. UW-Stevens Point had nine hits in the nightcap as Stanicek, Luedtke, Zamudio and Iloncaie each had two.
The teams will play another doubleheader Sunday, April 22 at 1:30 p.m.
