La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team earned an 18-15 win over Benedictine University (Ill.) in an elimination game of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) III Regional at Copeland Park. 

THE BASICS

• Result: UW-La Crosse 18, Benedictine University (Ill.) 15
• Location: Copeland Park, La Crosse, Wis. 
• Records: UW-La Crosse 33-14, Benedictine University (Ill.) 33-14
• National Ranking: UW-La Crosse is ranked 15th and Benedictine 19th on this weeks D3baseball.com Top-25 polls. 
• Up Next: UW-La Crosse will play Coe College (Iowa) on Sunday at 11 a.m. in the NCAA III Regional Championship. Coe College is undefeated in the regional, so UWL would need to beat them twice to advance. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

• UWL got off to a fast start as Nate Witte walked and advanced to third on a double by Chris VandenHeuvel. Back-to-back walks by Mac Born and George Seaman would score Witte to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. Anthony Vivian then hit a sacrifice fly to VandenHeuvel while a Jack Olver single scored both Seaman and Born to make it 4-0. Andrew Rajkovich then walked to move to Olver to second followed by a single by Tim Urlaub to load the bases. Jack Moran would reach on a throwing error to score Olver. Witte would then hit his sixth home run of the season to clear the bases and extend UWL's lead to 9-0.
• In the top of the third inning, Benedictine would score two runs on two hits. Kevin Bushnell drove in both runs with a single. 
• A three run home run by Seaman in the bottom of the third inning would extend the Eagles lead to 12-2. It was Seaman's team leading 16th home run on the season. 
• Benedictine would cut their to 12-7 in the top of the fifth inning as they scored five runs on three hits and two errors. Logan Gregorio, Brennan Fisher, DeShawnte Carraway and David Rubin each drove in a run for Benedictine. 
• UWL would get three of those runs back in the bottom half of the fifth inning. Born and Seaman each drove in a run with a single while Anthony Vivian's double drove in the third run to make it 15-7.
• Rubin would drive in two runs with a single while Bushnell and Betevis each scored a run as Benedictine pulled with in 15-11 in the top of the sixth.
• Rajkovich led of the bottom of the sixth with his sixth home of the season to extend UWL's lead to 16-11.
• Benedictine would cut their deficit to 16-13 on a two run home run by Fisher. UWL would get that run back in the bottom of the seventh inning on Olver's third home run of the season to make it 17-13.
• In the bottom of the eighth inning, Moran reached on an error and advanced to second on a single by Witte. VandenHeuvel then singled to left field to score Moran and extend the Eagles lead to 18-13.
• In the top of the ninth, Gregorio led off with and went to third on a double by Bushnell. Fischer then singled to score both Gregorio and Bushnell to trim the UWL lead to 18-15 with no outs. Tucker Bouche then came on in relief for UWL and gave up a single to Carraway. Bouche then got a strikeout, ground out and strikeout to earn his second save of the season.

FROM THE BOX SCORE

• Offensively, UWL finished with 18 runs on 16 hits and five walks.
• UWL had six hitters finish with at least two hits including Witte, VandenHeuvel, Seaman, Olver, Rajkovich and Urlaurb. 
• Witte went 2-for-3 with a home run, two walks, four RBIs and three runs scored while Seaman was 3-for-5 with a home run, a walk, five RBIs and three runs scored.
• Owen Anderson (4-1) earned the win on the mound for UWL as he allowed 11 runs (eight earned) on eight hits and five walks while strkining out eight in 5.2 innings. 
• Benedictine finished with 15 runs on 14 hits and nine walks.
• Gregorio, Bushnell and Fischer each finished with three hits. Fischer finished with five RBIs while Buschnell had three RBIs and three runs scored.