The UW-Whitewater baseball team won their fifth and sixth consecutive games on Monday when they defeated UW-Stout in a doubleheader 9-7 and 20-17. The Warhawks came back from eleven runs down in the second game to win in six innings. The game was called early due to darkness.
Box Score Game 1
Box Score Game 2
These were the third and fourth match-ups between the two teams in three days. The Warhawks traveled to the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota, early this past Saturday morning to defeat the Blue Devils, 9-7 and 6-0, in a doubleheader that began at 1:00 pm.
In game one the Warhawks held off a late ninth inning surge by the Blue Devils to win 9-7. UW-W built a 9-2 lead going into the top of the ninth before surrendering five runs to UW-Stout.
The Warhawks were first on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second when Jordan Stine (Merrill/Merrill) scored on a Mike Kenseth (Milwaukee/West Allis Hale) single. The Warhawks added three more to that total in the bottom of the third. UW-Stout pitcher Josh Brandt walked Tom Corcoran (Rochester, MN/Rochester) to load the bases and Kevin Zalnis (Woodstock, IL/Woodstock) singled to score Ben Kuhlmann (Minneapolis, MN/Southwest) for the first run. Stine then singled to drive in Jeff Donovan (Wauwatosa/Wauwatosa East) and Corcoran.
The Warhawks took a 4-0 lead all the way to the bottom of the fifth where they scored two more runs. The Blue Devils answered with two runs in the top of the sixth to get on the scoreboard and narrow the gap to 6-2. The Warhawks then scored one run in the bottom of the sixth and two in the bottom of the seventh before heading to the ninth inning.
The Blue Devils made things interesting when UW-W pitcher Kevin Harves (Racho Santa Margarita, CA/Santa Margarite Catholic) walked leadoff batter Brandon O'Connell. Several hits later UW-Stout found themselves within two of the Warhawks. Bryant Ganser (Jefferson/Jefferson) came on in relief for the Warhawks to end the game before the Blue Devils could force the game to go to the bottom of the ninth.
Pitcher Adam Dominick (Waukesha/Waukesha West) notched the win for the Warhawks while Brandt recorded the loss for the Blue Devils. Dominick recorded five strikeouts in the first game of the twinbill and is 5-1 this season; Brandt is 1-3.
Both Kenseth and Zalnis recorded multiple RBI games for the Warhawks with two apiece. Ben Prather (Chicago, IL/James B. Conant) kept his team-leading twelve game hitting streak alive by going one-for-five at the plate and scoring one run.
Game two was a game for the books. The game featured ten pitchers, five for each team, thirty-seven runs, twenty-nine hits, and seven errors. The Warhawks got down early after a two-run second and seven-run third by the Blue Devils. UW-Stout hit two home runs in the top of the third that drove in four of the seven runs that inning. Down 9-0 in the bottom of the third the Warhawks manufactured three runs on four hits including the first of two Jeff Donovan (Wauwatosa/Wauwatosa East) home runs.
The Blue Devils added five more runs in the top of the fourth to go up 14-3. UW-Stout's five runs that inning featured back-to-back-to-back homeruns by Erik Johnson, Greg Smolinski, and O'Connell.
The Warhawks refused to go away and put up an astonishing fourteen runs in the bottom of the fourth to take the lead 17-14. The fourteen runs in the inning is not a record for UW-Whitewater however, in 1997 the Warhawks scored sixteen runs in one inning against Carroll College. Monday's big inning included seven hits: five of which were singles and two of which were home runs. The singles contributed to five of the RBI's as did the homers. The other four runs were accounted for on a walk, a wild pitch, a throwing error and a fielder's choice. Jeff Donovan (Wauwatosa/Wauwatosa East) also hit his second home run of the game in the inning.
The three run lead didn't last long as the Blue Devils answered with three runs in the top of the fifth to tie the game at seventeen. Again, the Warhawks refused to go away and scored two in the bottom half of the frame to go on top for good. A Bret Adamson single drove in Stine, and Kenseth scored later in the inning on an error.
The Warhawks held the two-run advantage into the bottom of the sixth and added one more on an RBI single by Corcoran. At this point the Warhawks led 20-17 after six innings and the game was called due to darkness.
The high scoring game included a total of nine multi-hit games between the two teams. UW-W's Jeff Donovan (Wauwatosa/Wauwatosa East), Corcoran, Zalnis and Prather all recorded two or more hits while UW-Stout's Mike White, Erik Johnson, Matt Krause, Brian Giebel and Eric Paul did the same. The last time UW-Whitewater scored twenty runs in a game was on May 1, 2005, in a 20-13 win over UW-Oshkosh.
Jeff Donovan (Wauwatosa/Wauwatosa East) tallied six RBI's in the second game and teammate Zalnis recorded three. Donovan also scored four runs while teammates Kuhlmann and Kenseth contributed three each.
UW-W's Mike Jacobson (Oak Creek/Oak Creek) got the win and is 3-1 this season while UW-Stout's Nate Hanson recorded the loss to move to 2-3.
The Warhawks have tentatively scheduled a doubleheader for Tuesday, April 15 at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, to begin at 1:00 pm. Check uwwsports.com for more information and updates on the baseball schedule.
For additional information:
John Vodenlich, UW-W head coach, 262-472-1420
UW-W baseball web site: http://www.uwwsports.com/index.asp?path=baseball
