Whitewater, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team advanced to the title game in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Championship (presented by Culver's) with a 5-3 victory over UW-Platteville Saturday afternoon at UW-Whitewater's Prucha Field at James B. Miller Stadium. The Eagles improve to 27-14 on the season and will play host UW-Whitewater in the championship game at 3 p.m. Saturday. UWL needs to defeat UW-Whitewater twice to earn the tournament title. 

UW-Platteville ends its season at 20-21.   

UWL jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first on Saturday. Brennan Schmitt walked with one out and advanced to second on Brady Stolzman's single. Carson Youngquist followed with an RBI single to knock in Schmitt with the game's first run. Mitch Sutton's sacrifice fly scored Stolzman with the second run of the inning. 

UW-Platteville got on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth as Josh Moses scored an unearned run on a UWL throwing error to make it 2-1. The Eagles responded in the bottom of the fourth as Shane Coker (walk) and Jake McClellan (single) both scored on Zach Carney's three-run home run for a 5-1 lead. 

The Pioneers cut the lead to 5-3 in the top of the fifth as Logan Kozak singled and scored on Jonathan Kelso's two-run home run. UW-Platteville stranded a runner in the fifth, but would not strand a runner the remainder of the game. 
 

Connor Cook (6-1) earned the win for UWL, pitching 8.0 innings, allowing six hits, three runs (two earned) and three walks while striking out five. Owen Olson picked up his first save, pitching the ninth inning with two strikeouts. The Eagles totaled seven hits with Youngquist finishing 3-for-3. 

Caleb Kaufmann (4-5) took the loss for UW-Platteville, going 4.0 innings, allowing six hits, five runs and three walks with three strikeouts. The Pioneers had six hits as Moses finished 2-for-3 with a run.