La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Baseball team opened the National Colletiate Athletic Association Division III Regional with a 4-2 win over Bethany Lutheran College (Minn.) Friday afternoon.
 

THE BASICS

• Result: UW-La Crosse 4, Bethany Lutheran College (Minn.) 2
• Location: Copeland Park, La Crosse, Wis. 
• Records: UW-La Crosse 34-9, Bethany Lutheran College 29-13
• NCAA La Crosse Regional: UW-La Crosse is the top seed in the regional while Bethany Lutheran is the #4 seed. 
• Up Next: UWL will now face Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (Calif.) in the winners bracket on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. Bethany Lutheran will face Buena Vista University (Iowa) at 11 a.m. on Saturday in an elimination game. Claremont defated Buena Vista 23-3 in the the other half of the bracket on Friday afternoon.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The game entered the home half of the third inning scoreless. Calvin Hargrove led off with a single and advanced to third on Chris VandenHeuvel's double. After a strikeout, George Seaman walked to load the bases. Mac Born would bring Hargrove home with his sacrifice fly to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.
• In the fourth inning, Anthony Vivian singled and went to second when Andrew Rajkovich walked. Hargrove would then move Vivian and Rajkovich up a base with a sacrifice bunt. With two outs, Nate Witte walked to load the bases before Seaman hit a base clearing double to extend UWL's lead to 4-0.
• With two outs in the top of the fifth inning, Will Carlson singled and came in to score when Eli Fest singled and advanced to third on a fielding error which allowed Carlson to score to cut the Eagles lead to 4-1.
• With the score still 4-1 heading into the eighth inning and one out, Aidan Russell reached on a fielders choice and advanced to second on Nolan Spence's single. Josh Robb would then single to left field and bring home Russell from second to cut the Vikings deficit to 4-2. 
• UWL closer Caleb Matl would retire the Vikings in order in the ninth inning to earn his third save of the season. 

FROM THE BOX SCORE

• Offensively, UWL finished with four runs on 10 hits and three walks.
• Seaman finished with 1-for-3 with a walk and three RBIs while Vivian was 4-for-4 with a double and a run scored to lead the Eagles offense. 
• Chayce Osternaus (8-1) earned the win for the Eagles on the mound as he allowed seven hits while striking out two in 6.0 innings of work. Matl came on in relief to pitch the final 1.1 innings to earn his third save of the season.
• The Vikings finished with two runs on 10 hits and two walks. 
• Robb finished 2-for-4 with an RBI to lead Bethany Lutheran College offensively. 
• Trent Ash (11-1) suffered the loss for the Vikings as he allowed four runs on eight hits and three walks while striking out seven in 6.0 innings of work.