La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team dropped its 2019 home opener, 9-7, to Luther College (Iowa) Tuesday afternoon at Copeland Park. The Eagles fall to 2-6 on the season while the Norse improve to 7-9.
Luther (Iowa) took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second on Jake Halverson's two-out two-run single. UWL tied the game in the bottom of the fourth with
Zach Carney scoring on
Carson Youngquist's groundout and
Mitch Sutton scoring on
Shane Coker's single.
Brennan Schmitt
The Norse regained the lead with four runs in the top of the fifth. Trent Athmann's two-run single made it 4-2 while Joe McKibben had an RBI groundout and Derek McCready an infield single to score a run. The Eagles cut the margin to 6-4 in the bottom of the sixth on solo home runs from
Brennan Schmitt and
Cal Tully.
Both teams scored a run in the seventh with McKibben's RBI double for Luther (Iowa) and Youngquist's ground-rule double for UWL. Each team tallied a pair of runs in the eighth. Luke Plunkett and Owen Vander Linden each had run-scoring singles to give the Norse a 9-5 advantage. The Eagles came back in the bottom of the eighth on Sutton's two-out two-run single to cut the deficit to 9-7.
Each team left 10 runners on base in the game.
Cal Tully
UWL finished with 13 hits as Carney, Sutton, Tully and
Jack Dwyer each had two. Sutton and Youngquist each had two RBI while Tully scored twice.
Garrett McGraw (0-2) took the loss for the Eagles, going 1.1 innings, allowing one hit, three runs (one earned) and two walks with one strikeout.
Jack Mizgalski started, pitching 3.0 innings, allowing four hits, two runs and one walk while striking out five. UWL used six pitchers in the game.
Luther (Iowa) totaled 11 hits with Athmann and Vander Linden each finishing with two. Athmann and McKibben had two RBI while Athmann, Vander Linden and Kelby Johnson each scored twice. All nine starters had a hit for the Norse. John Colucci III (1-0) picked up the victory for Luther (Iowa), going 2.1 innings, allowing four hits and two runs while striking out five. Joey Cardamon earned his first save, pitching 2.0 innings, allowing one hit with two strikeouts.
UWL returns to action Saturday, March 30 opening Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) play with a doubleheader at UW-Stevens Point at noon.