University of Wisconsin La Crosse Athletics

Whitewater, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Baseball team used a nine run first inning to propel them to a win over UW-Eau Claire in the opening round of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tournament (presented by Culvers) Thursday afternoon. UWL will face UW-River Falls in a second round game on Friday at 1 p.m.

THE BASICS

• Result: UW-La Crosse 13, UW-Eau Claire 1 (7 innings)
• Location: Prucha Field at Jim Miller Stadium, Whitewater, Wis. 
• Records: UW-La Crosse 31-10, UW-Eau Claire 21-20
• WIAC Tournament History: UWL is appearing in the WIAC Tournament for the 23rd time in the 27 years of the league tournament and have won three tournament titles (2012, 2016, 2023). Today's win marks the first time UWL has won a first round game in the WIAC tournament since 2023. 
• WIAC Tournament Champion: The winner of the WIAC Tournament earns an automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Championships with the opening round Regional on May 15-17. 
• Up Next: UW-River Falls upset top seed UW-Whitewater 13-4 in the other first round game on Thursday. UW-Whitewater and UW-Eau Claire will now play an elimination game on Friday at 10 a.m. while UWL and UW-River Falls will play at 1:00 pm. The winner of UW-Whitewater/UW-Eau Claire will then play the loser of UWL/UW-River Falls at 4 p.m. on Friday. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

• UW-Eau Claire would strike first as they scored an unearned run in their half of the first inning to lead 1-0. Logan Scuglik would reach on a throwing error and later score on Logan Hesselman's ground out.
• The Eagles would respond in the bottom half of the first inning by scoring nine runs on nine hits. Chris Calico led off with a double and scored on Charley Rowan's triple down the right field line. Luke Walton and Brady Burrill would back-to-back doubles to give UWL a 2-1 lead. Sam Viniard then made it 5-1 with a three-run home run  to right center field. Emiliano Ramos would give the Eagles their sixth consecutive hit, a double, before UW-Eau Claire would record the first out. Ramos would score on a ground out while Palm scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-1. Rowan and Walton would each drive in their second run off the inning with singles to give the Eagles a 9-1 lead. 
• The score remained 9-1 until the fourth inning when UWL added three more runs. With one out, Ramos singled, stole second and went to third on a ground out. Palm then brought Ramos home to score with a single while Calico's single scored Palm. Rowan's double would score AJ Levy to put UWL up 12-1. 
• UWL would add a final run in the sixth inning on Rowan's ground out which scored Levy (13-1). 

FROM THE BOX SCORE

• Offensively, UWL finished with 13 runs on 17 hits and three walks.
• Three Eagles finished with three hits a piece including Rowan (3-for-5, 4 RBIs, 2 runs scored), Ramos (3-for-4, 2 runs scored) and Levy (3-for-4, 2 runs scored and an RBI). 
• Calico reached base five times as he was 2-for-2 with three and two runs scored. 
• Owen Deprez (8-1) earned his 25th win as an Eagle to break the schools all-time record as he pitched a complete game allowing one run on five hits and no walks while striking out four in 7.0 innings. His four strikeouts adds to his all-time school record as he now has 258 strikeouts. 
• Nicholas Meuser (4-3) suffered the loss for the Blugolds as he allowed nine runs on nine hits and a walk in 1.0 innings. 
• Will Johnson led the Blugolds offense as he finished 2-for-3 while Hesselman was 1-for-3 with an RBI.