Whitewater, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team opened its Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) play with a doubleheader loss to UW-Whitewater Wednesday afternoon at Prucha Field at Jim Miller Stadium. The Warhawks, ranked 16th on D3baseball.com, earned a 9-2 win in the opener and 8-3 in the nightcap. UW-Whitewater improves to 8-0 overall and 2-0 in the WIAC while UWL, receiving votes on D3baseball.com, falls to 5-3 overall and 0-2 in the conference.

UW-Whitewater scored five times in the bottom of the first inning in the opener. Connor Moroder drew a bases-loaded walk to score Zach Campbell with the first run of the game. After a strikeout for the first out of the inning, Donovan Brandl scored on Nick Santoro's fielder's choice.  Tucker Criswell later scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-0 and RBI singles from Ryan Norton and Jacob DeMeyer gave the Warhawks a 5-0 lead. 

UWL got on the scoreboard in the top of hte fifth with Ethan Gerstner scoring on Jack Kelly's two-out single to make it 5-1. UW-Whitewater got the run back in the bottom of the inning on Matt Korman's run-scoring single. The Eagles' Parker Plume scored in the top of the seventh for UWL on Zach Carney's fielder's choice to cut the lead to 6-2, but the Warhawks tallied twice in the bottom of the inning to take an 8-2 lead. Brandl finished the scoring with an RBI single in the eighth.

Zach Pronschinske (1-1) suffered the loss for UWL in the opener, pitching 7.0 innings, allowing 11 hits, eight runs and four walks while striking out four.  The Eagles finished with nine hits with Carney going 3-for-4 with an RBI and walk.  Connor Roesler finished 2-for-4. 

Westin Muir (3-0) picked up the victory for UW-Whitewater, going 7.0 innings, allowing eight hits, two runs and two walks while striking out six. The Warhawks totaled 13 hits in the opener. DeMeyer went 3-for-4 while Campbell, Brandl, Criswell, and Korman each had two hits. 

UWL took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first in the nightcap as Carney singled to open the game and scored on a Jordan Williams double. The Eagles made it 2-0 in the third as Carney tripled to start the inning and came in on a Williams' sacrifice fly. UW-Whitewater took the lead with four runs in the bottom half of the third. The Warhawks cut it to 2-1 as Campbell scored on a Ian Drays' groundout. Korman followed with a two-run home run to make it 3-2 and Santaro scored an unearned run on a Sam Vomhof single for a 4-2 advantage. 

Santaro tripled with two outs in the fifth and came in on a Vomhof single to give UW-Whitewater a 5-2 lead. Korman added a two-run home run in the seventh for the Warhaws to make it 7-2 and Vomhof scored in the eighth on a Ben Wilkins sacrifice fly. 

UWL scored once in the ninth with Colton Schraepfer scoring on Spencer Hans' two-out RBI single.

Jake Mizgalski (2-1) took the loss for UWL, pitching 7.1 innings, allowing seven hits, eight runs (seven earned) and five walks while striking out four. The Eagles had six hits in the nightcap with Carney finishing 2-for-4 with two runs and Williams going 2-for-3 with two RBI. 

Matt O'Sullivan (3-0) earned the win for UW-Whitewater. He pitched 7.0 innings, allowing five hits and two runs with seven strikeouts. The Warhawks finished with seven hits as Vomhof went 3-for-4 with two RBI and one run. Korman finished 2-for-4 with two runs and four RBI. 

UWL returns to action Friday, April 2 hosting UW-Whitewater in a conference doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. at Copeland Park.