Whitewater, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team fell 5-4 at UW-Whitewater in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Championship (presented by Culver's) Friday afternoon at Prucha Field at Jim Miller Stadium. The Eagles, now 30-12 on the season, will play at 4 p.m. Friday versus the loser of the UW-Stevens Point and UW-Stout contest. UW-Whitewater, 35-5 on the year and ranked fifth on this week's D3baseball.com Top-25 Poll, advances to play in the winner's bracket at 7 p.m. Friday against the winner of UW-Stevens Point/UW-Stout. 

UWL took a 2-0 lead in the opening inning on Friday. Connor Roesler led-off with a triple and after Jonathan Wizner was hit-by-pitch, Zach Carney's fielder's choice scored Roesler with the game's first run. Carney advanced to second on the play after a UW-Whitewater throwing error. Brenna Schmitt followed with a single to knock in Carney to give UWL a 2-0 lead. 

UW-Whitewater tied the game in the bottom of the second. Matt Korman walked to start the inning and went to second on a wild pitch with one out. Ryan Norton singled and went to second on the throw with Korman moving to third. After a strikeout, Nick Santoro tripled with two outs to tie the contest.  

The Eagles regained the lead in the top of the third with a two-out run. Mac Born doubled and Jack Olver's single drove in Born to give UWL a 3-2 advantage. The Warhawks quickly responded in the bottom of the inning with a pair of solo home runs to take a 4-3 lead. Tucker Criswell's home run tied the game and Donovan Brandl's home run gave UW-Whitewater a 4-3 lead. 
 

The game remained at 4-3 until the top of the seventh when UWL tied the contest. Carney singled to start the inning and went to second after Schmitt was hit-by-pitch. Carney was caught stealing for the first out of the inning with Schmitt advancing to second. After a pop-out, Olver's RBI triple scored Schmitt with the game-tying run.

UW-Whitewater advanced in the tournament in the bottom of the ninth on a one-out walk-off home run from Sam Vomhof off UWL starter Zach Pronschinske. 

Pronschinske (6-3) suffered the loss for UWL, pitching 8.1 innings, allowing eight hits, five runs and six walks while striking out five. The Eagles finished with 13 hits, leaving 11 runners on base, including at least one in each inning. Roesler went 3-for-4 with a run scored while Born finished 3-for-5 with one run. Olver went 2-for-5 with two RBI while Parker Plume finished 2-for-4. 

Connor Spear (6-0) earned the win for UW-Whitewater, going 2.0 innings in relief, allowing two hits with three strikeouts. Matt O'Sullivan started the contest, pitching 7.0 innings, allowing 11 hits, four runs (three earned) and one walk with six strikeouts. Eight different players had a hit for the Warhawks. Santoro had a team-high two RBI.