La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse softball team dropped a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) doubleheader with UW-Whitewater Sunday afternoon at North Campus Field in the Eagles' final regular-season home games of the year. UW-Whitewater earned a 3-1 win in the opener and 2-1 in the nightcap. UWL falls to 18-16 overall and 5-7 in the WIAC while UW-Whitewater improves to 22-11-1 overall and 12-2 in the conference. With Sunday's doubleheader sweep, UW-Whitewater clinches the WIAC regular-season title. 

UWL took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second in Sunday's opener. Grace Mindrup reached first on a fielding error by UW-Whitewater's first baseman and advanced to third after a field error by the Warhawks' right-fielder. Sabrina Scardamaglia then followed with an RBI single to right-center field to score the game's first run. 

UW-Whitewater took its first lead of the day in the top of the third as Kaiden Jackson and Mallory Klotz scored on Vera Pflugradt's two-out RBI single. The Warhawks added to their lead in the top of the seventh after Emily Rux drew a bases-loaded walk to score Kelly Berglund. 

Caitlyn Hughes (7-9) suffered the loss for UWL, going 6.1 innings, allowing seven hits, three runs and two walk with one strikeout. The Eagles finished with four hits as Brittany Baldwin went 2-for-3. 

Julie Camardo (10-5) earned the complete-game win for UW-Whitewater, pitching 7.0 innings, allowing four hits and one run (unearned) with six strikeouts. The Warhawks totaled seven hits as Caitlin Catino and Pflugradt each went 2-for-4.

Michayla Swanson's RBI single in the top of the second scored Pflugradt to give the Warhawks a 1-0 lead in the nightcap. Pflugradt scored in the top of the fourth to make it 2-0 after Swanson was caught stealing at second base. UWL cut the deficit to 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth. Mia Schmidtke walked with out and advanced to second on Mindrup's single. Both runners moved up a groundout. Sarah Stewart then singled through the right side to score Schmidtke, but pinch-runner Maddie Yont was thrown out at home for the third out of the inning. 

Baldwin singled to start the bottom of the sixth for UWL and advanced to second on a Sydney Murphy sacrifice bunt. Baldwin moved to third on a wild pitch with one out, but was stranded. The Ealges got the tying run, Scardamaglia, to second base on one out in the bottom of the seventh, but the final two batters were retired by strikeouts to end the game. 

Sydne Shattuck (2-4) took the loss for UWL, pitching 5.1 innings, allowing six hits and two runs with two strikeouts. Four different players had a hit for the Eagles. 

Bella Matthias (8-4) picked up the complete-game win for UW-Whitewater, going 7.0 innings, allowing four hits, one run and two walks while striking out seven. The Warhawks finished with seven hits with Pflugradt going 2-for-3 with two runs.

UWL returns to action Tuesday, May 1 at UW-Oshkosh in a doubleheader at 2 p.m.