La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team earned a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) doubleheader sweep of UW-Eau Claire Friday afternoon at Copeland Park. The Eagles won the opener, 13-4, and the nightcap, 13-3 in seven innings. UWL improves to 24-10 overall and 16-8 in the WIAC while UW-Eau Claire drops to 4-28 overall and 4-20 in the conference.
UWL extends its season-high winning streak to eight with Friday's sweep.
Sawyer Phillips tied his career-high with eight strikeouts.
UWL took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first in the opener.
Zach Carney scored on a double play to make it 1-0 and
Jack Kelly followed with a run-scoring single. The Eagles added a pair of runs in the bottom of the second with Carney drawing a bases-loaded walk while
Ethan Gerstner scoring came in on
Jonathan Wizner's fielder's choice.
UW-Eau Claire cut the deficit to 4-1 in the top of the third with Otto Treichel scoring on Jacob Lacy's single. UWL got the run back in the bottom of the inning after
Shane Coker scored on a UW-Eau Claire fielding error.
After the Blugolds cut the lead to 5-2 in the fourth, the Eagles scored single runs in the fourth and fifth innings to make it 7-2.
Brennan Schmitt was hit-by-pitch and scored on
Mac Born's double in the fourth inning while Gerstner scored on a Wizner single in the fifth.
UW-Eau Claire cut it to 7-3 in the sixth on a Treichel ground out. UWL tallied three runs in the seventh for a 10-3 lead. Carney had an RBI single and Coker a two-run single. UW-Eau Claire cut it to 10-4 in the eighth on a Logan Matson sacrifice fly. Carney's added an RBI double in the eighth for UWL while Gerstner scored on a passed ball and Carney came in on Wizner's sacrifice fly.
Sawyer Phillips (5-2) earned the victory in the opener, going 6.0 innings, allowing five hits, three runs and two walks while tying his career-high with eight strikeouts.
Chris Seveska recorded his first save, pitching 3.0 innings, allowing one hit and one run with five strikeouts. The Eagles finished with 15 hits in the opener with six players recording at least two. Carney went 3-for-5 with three runs and three RBI while Kelly finished 3-for-4 with an RBI. Wizner was 2-for-5 with two runs and three RBI, Born 2-for-4 with an RBI, Gerstner 2-for-3 with four RBI and
Parker Plume 2-for-4.
Wes Brand (0-4) suffered the loss for UW-Eau Claire, pitching 5.0 innings, allowing 10 hits, seven runs (four earned) and four walks while striking out four. Six different players had a hit for the Blugolds.
Zach Carney finished with four hits, four runs and six RBI in the doubleheader.
In the nightcap,
Brady Schmitt (3-0) earned the complete-game victory. He went 7.0 innings, allowing 10 hits, three runs (two earned) and one walk with three strikeouts.
UW-Eau Claire took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a Treichel RBI single. UWL tied it in the bottom of the second on Gerstner's single knocking in
Andrew Rajkovich.
The Blugolds took a 2-1 lead in the third on another Treichel single. The Eagles tied it with a run in the bottom of the fourth on Gerstner's RBI groundout. UWL tallied 10 runs on six hits in the fifth inning. Wizner walked to start the inning and scored on
Brennan Schmitt's two-run home run to give UWL a 4-2 lead.
Jack Olver's RBI single made it 5-2 and Gerstner drew a bases-loaded walk. Carney followed with a two-run single for a 8-2 advantage. Schmitt knocked in his third run of the inning with a single while Born and Olver also had run-scoring singles. Coker added a sacrifice fly in the inning.
Carney had an RBI ground out in the sixth to make it 13-2 and David Janssen's single in the seventh for UW-Eau Claire finished the scoring.
UWL totaled 11 hits in the nightcap with seven starters recording at least one. Olver went 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBI while Schmitt finished 2-for-4 with two runs and three RBI. Carney and Gerstner also finished with three RBI while Rajkovich scored twice.
Charley Griffin (1-4) took the loss for UW-Eau Claire, pitching 4.1 innings, allowing seven hits, 10 runs and six walks while striking out three. The Blugolds finished with 10 hits as Treichel, Henry Pitsch and Will Jilek each had two. Treichel finished with two RBI and Janssen scored twice.
The teams will play a non-conference doubleheader Saturday, May 8 in Eau Claire at 1 p.m.
