University of Wisconsin La Crosse Athletics

Whitewater, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Baseball team advanced to the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tournament Championship (presented by Culvers) with a 13-7 win over UW-River Falls on Friday afternoon. Eagles will be seeking their fifth WIAC tournament title in school history on Saturday. 

THE BASICS

• Result: UW-La Crosse 13, UW-River Falls 7
• Location: Prucha Field at Jim Miller Stadium, Whitewater, Wis. 
• Records: UW-La Crosse 32-10, 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). The Eagles are making their third appearance in the last four years in the WIAC Championship game. UWL is seeking its fifth WIAC Tournament Title in school history (2000, 2012, 2016, 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 and UW-Whitewater will play an elimination game with the winner advancing to face UWL on Saturday morning at 11 a.m. With UWL's 2-0 record in the tournament, the Eagles will need to lose game one for an "if neccesary" game to be played. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

• UWL wasted no time taking the lead as they scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Chris Calico led off the first inning with a walk and advanced to third on Charley Rowan's single through the right side. Calico then scored on a wild pitch as Rowan advanced to third. Then with one out, Rowan would score on Brady Burrill's sacrifice fly to give UWL the early 2-0 lead.
• Sam Viniard walked to start the second inning and went to third on Keegan Fleischman's single. AJ Levy then executed a sacrifice bunt that scored Viniard from third to put UWL up 3-0. UWL would take a 4-0 lead on Calico's single which scored Fleischman from second base.
• Andrew Palm gave UWL a 5-0 lead as he hit his seventh home run of the season in the bottom of the fourth inning. 
• UW-River Falls would tie the game up at 5-5 as they scored five runs on four hits and an error in the top of the fifth inning. Tanner Hraby and Max Krebs each drove in two runs with a double to provide the big hits for the Falcons. 
• UWL would retake the lead (6-5) in their half of the fifth inning as Burrill hit a two out triple and scored on Emiliano Ramos' double to left center. Viniard would then walk followed by Palm's second home run of the game to give the Eagles a 9-5 lead. 
• After the Falcons scored a run in the top of the sixth, UWL added three more runs in the bottom of the sixth and a single run in the seventh to extend their lead to 13-6. An RBI single for Luke Walton, RBI double for Burrill and sacrifice fly for Ramos accounted for the three runs in the sixth while Calico's RBI single in the seventh made it 13-6. 
• With two outs in the top of the ninth inning, Kaleb Zabielski drove in a run with his single to center field but that would be all the Falcons would get. 

FROM THE BOX SCORE

• Offensively, UWL finished with 13 runs on 15 hits and three walks.
• Palm (3-for-4, 2 HR,4 RBIs, 2 runs scored), Burrill (3-for-4, 2 RBIs) and Levy (2-for-3, 2 doubles, 2 runs scored and an RBI) led the Eagles offense on Friday. 
• Also finishing with multi-hit games was Calico (2-4, BB, 2 RBIs and a run scored) and Fleischman (2-for-4, run scored).  
• AJ Curtis (5-3) picked up the win for the Eagles as went 5.2 innings, allowing six runs on eight hits and a walk while striking out three. Ethan Pettis (S,2) picked up his second save of the season as he pitched the final 3.1 innings and allowed one run on two hits and two walks while striking out five. 
• UW-River Falls fnished with seven runs on 10 hits and three walks. 
• Brett Sullivan (2-4) suffered the loss for the Falcons as he allowed six runs on six hits and two walks in 4.2 innings. 
• Hraby (2-5, 2 RBI), Carter Klein (2-for-4) and Andrew Athmann (2-for-4) all recorded mult-hit games to lead the Falcons offensively.