La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team clinched a berth in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Super Regionals with a 16-3 victory over Bethel University (Minn.) Sunday afternoon at Copeland Park. The Eagles, ranked 13th on this week's D3baseball.com Top-25 Poll, advance to face UW-Stevens Point in the best-of-three NCAA III Super Regional on Friday, May 26 through Saturday, May 27. The opening game of the Super Regional on May 26 starts at noon. The location will be announced Monday, May 22. 

UWL improves to 34-10 on the season while Bethel (Minn.) finishes 32-12. The Royals forced a second championship game with a 4-3 victory on a two-out two-run home run earlier Sunday.  

UWL's 34 wins are tied for third in single-season school history. UWL also won 34 games in 2012. The Eagles won a school record 39 games in 2016 and 36 in 2015. 

UWL took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first in Sunday's victory as Jordan Williams singled to start the game, went to second on a passed ball and scored on Logan Pye's RBI double to left field.   

The Eagles tallied nine runs on eight hits and a Royals' error in the second. Tim Urlaub singled with one out and went to second on Chris VandenHeuvel's walk. Jack Moran's infield single loaded the bases and Williams followed with a two-run double to score Urlaub and VandenHeuvel for a 3-0 lead. Pye then delivered a two-run single knocking in Moran and Williams to make it 5-0. Pye went to second on a Bethel (Minn.) fielding error on the play. Jordan Krupke came into pitch for Bethel (Minn.) starter Ryan Parker and Jack Olver hit a two-run home run on the first pitch to extend the lead to 7-0. Ty Hamilton later singled with two outs and went to second on a George Seaman walk. After another Royals' pitching change with Michael Meadows coming into the game, Urlaub walked to load the bases. VandenHeuvel followed with a three-run double to left center field giving UWL a 10-0 advantage. 

Bethel (Minn.) got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third. Noah Wenberg walked to lead-off the inning and went to second on a Marcus Krupke single. After a fly-out, Tommy Friesen singled to load the bases. Justin Winterfeldt was hit-by-pitch to score a run to make it 10-1. UWL starter Owen Anderson retired Kennan Hodgkin and Ty Koehn on a pair of fly balls to strand the bases loaded. 

UWL added two runs in the fourth and two in the sixth to take a 14-1 lead. Anthony Vivian walked to start the fourth and advanced to third on Hamilton's double. Urlaub later hit a one-out single to score Vivian and VandenHeuvel followed with a sacrifice fly to score Hamilton. 

Hamilton walked to lead-off the sixth and scored on VandenHeuvel's two-run home run to extend the lead to 14-1. In the eighth, Hamilton led off the inning again, this time with a double. He later scored on pinch-hitter Ben LaRonge's two-run home run to make it 16-1. 

The Royals scored twice in the eighth on Matthew Carlsen's two-run single scoring Koehn and Nick Kulseth. 
 

Sawyer Phillips (3-0) picked up the win for UWL, pitching 3.1 innings. He allowed three hits and one walk while striking out one. Anderson went 3.2 innings, allowing three hits, one run and two walks with five strikeouts. Alex Mach pitched the final 2.0 innings, allowing five hits, two runs and one walk while striking out four. 

UWL finished with 17 hits as eight starters recorded at least one. VandenHeuvel went 3-for-3 with two runs, one walk and six RBI while Hamilton finished 3-for-4 with four runs and one walk. Williams went 3-for-6 with two runs and two RBI. Pye finished 2-for-5 with on run and three RBI and Urlaub 2-for-3 with two runs, one walk and one RBI. 

Parker (2-2) took the loss for Bethel (Minn.), going 1.1 innings, allowing six hits, six runs and one walk. The Royals totaled 11 hits as Carlsen finished 3-for-5 with two RBI.