La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team earned a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) doubleheader sweep of UW-Platteville Sunday afternoon at Copeland Park. The Eagles took the opener, 15-4 in seven innings, and rallied in the nightcap for a 11-9 win. UWL improves to 11-6 overall and 6-2 in the WIAC while UW-Platteville drops to 4-10 overall and 2-6 in the conference.
UWL took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second with
Mac Born scoring on
Logan Pye's single. UW-Platteville took a 3-1 lead in the third on a two-run home run from Ross Krist and Jake Wegner's single scoring Jonathan Kelso.
Jacob Bryant went 7.0 innings in earning the win in Sunday's opener.
The Eagles scored 12 runs over the fourth and fifth innings, tallying seven in the fourth on eight hits. Born's home run to lead-off the fourth cut the Pioneers' lead to 3-2.
Jacob Shamban doubled and
Anthony Vivian followed with a two-run home run to give UWL a 4-3 lead. After a UW-Platteville pitching change,
Andrew Rajkovich walked and went to third on
Zach Carney's double.
Connor Roesler's sacrifice fly scored Rajkovich to make it 5-3.
Jack Olver followed with a run-scoring single to knock in Carney for a 6-3 lead.
Jack Kelly singled moving Olver to second. Born and Shamban recorded their second hits in the ining, each delivering hit RBI singles for an 8-3 advantage.
Krist hit a solo home run in the top of the fifth for UW-Platteville to cut the lead to 8-4, but UWL responded with five runs in the bottom of the inning. Roesler's single scored Rajkovich for a 9-4 lead and Carney scored on a wild pitch to make it 10-4. Kelly's single scored Roesler and Born's two-run home run gave UWL a 13-4 lead.
UWL added two runs in the sixth on
Jacob DeBruin's two-run home run.
Zach Carney went 7-for-9 with five runs on Sunday.
Jacob Bryant (2-1) earned the complete-game victory in the opener, pitching 7.0 innings, allowing eight hits, four runs and two walks while striking out two. The Eagles totaled 17 hits with eight starters recording at least one. Born finished 4-for-4 with two home runs, four RBI and three runs while Carney went 4-for-4 with two runs and a walk. Kelly finished 2-for-5 with two runs while Rajkovich walked three times while scoring three runs.
Zach Liebl (0-3) suffered the loss for UW-Platteville. He went 3.0 innings, allowing six hits, four runs and one walk with one strikeout. The Pioneers had eight hits in the opener with Krist finishing 3-for-3 with three RBI, two home runs, two runs and a walk.
UW-Platteville raced out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first in the nightcap. Wegner had a two-run double to start the scoring. UWL got one run back in the bottom of the inning as Carney scored on a wild pitch. Born's sacrifice fly scored Roesler to cut it to 4-2.
The Pioneers added to their lead with three runs in the top of the fifth. Higa had an two-run single as UW-Platteville took a 7-2 lead. UWL rallied with four runs in the bottom of the sixth. Roesler's single scored
Ty Hamilton to cut the lead to 7-3. Olver and Kelly each had an RBI groundout to make it 7-5 and Vivian's triple scored Born to cut the lead to 7-6. UWL took the lead in the seventh, scoring five times. Roesler walked with the bases-loaded to tie the game and Olver's single scored Hamilton with the go-ahead run. Kelly's RBI single knocked in Carney and Born added a two-run double bringing in Roesler and Kelly.
Wegner's RBI single in the eighth for UW-Platteville cut the deficit to 11-8. The Pioneers got an unearned run in the top of the ninth off an Eagles' error to make it 11-9, but UW-Platteville left two runners on base to end the game.
Connor Roesler finished 3-for-7 with four runs and four RBI.
UWL finished with 13 hits in the game as the top-five in the lineup (Carney, Roesler, Olver, Kelly, Born) combined for 10 hits, nine RBI and eight runs. Carney went 3-for-5 with three runs while Roesler finished 3-for-4 with three runs and two RBI. Olver was 2-for-4 with two RBI, Kelly 1-for-4 with two RBI and a run and Born 2-for-3 with three RBI and one run. Hamilton scored twice for the Eagles.
Caleb Matl (1-2) earned the win, pitching 7.0 innings in relief, allowing seven hits, three runs (two earned) and two walks while striking out seven.
UW-Platteville totaled 12 hits as Kelso went 3-for-4 with a run. Wegner was 2-for-4 with three RBI and one run with Ben Espinoza finishing 2-for-5 and two runs. Dominic Buono (0-1) took the loss, going 0.1 of an inning. He allowed four hits, five runs and three walks.
UWL returns to action Saturday, April 9 at UW-Stevens Point in a doubleheader starting at noon.
