UW-Whitewater held on to first place in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a split at UW-Stout in Menomonie Saturday, losing 9-5 and winning 8-4.
box score game 1
box score game 2
Stout never trailed in game one. The Blue Devils took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first and Rob Coe (Appleton/North) cut the margin in half with his third home run of the season in the top of the second. Stout added three more in the third on three hits, with the aid of a walk, a hit batter and a Warhawk error. Matt Millar (Stoughton/Stoughton) doubled in a run in the fourth for the Warhawks to cut Stout's lead to 5-2. UW-S scored what proved to be the winning runs in the fourth, plating two to make it 7-2 Stout. The Blue Devils added solo runs in the fifth and sixth. Whitewater made a run at a comeback, courtesy of a Matt Beyer (Janesville/Parker) three run homer, his third of the season.
Ryan Leavitt (Merrill/Merrill) and Millar led the Warhawks with two hits each. Brandon O'Connell went 3x5 for Stout. Matt Dornik went the distance to pick up the win for UW-S, while UW-W used three hurlers.
UW-W jumped in front in game two, scoring four runs in the top of the first. Four walks and a wild pitch, combined with Mike Kenseth (Milwaukee/West Allis Hale)'s two run double for the quick start. Stout responded with three runs in their half of the inning. Whitewater took that 4-3 in to the sixth, when the Warhawks went up 5-3 on the game winning sacrifice fly by Kevin Zalnis (Woodstock, IL/Woodstock). UW-W added three more runs, on just two hits, in the seventh to lead 8-3. Stout's lone run in the bottom half of the inning ended the scoring.
Jason Hooper (Lake Mills/Lake Mills), 5-2, went seven innings to pick up the win for UW-W. Eric Schmitz (Fond du Lac/Fond du Lac) went the last two innings in relief. Kenseth was perfect at the plate, going 3x3 with a pair of walks and two runs batted in.
UW-W is 20-10 overall and UW-Stout is 15-13. Whitewater leads the WIAC at 12-7, followed by UW-Stevens Point and UW-Oshkosh at 10-6. There are twenty-two games in the league schedule.
Whitewater is ranked twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth in the two national polls of NCAA III teams.
The Warhawks' next game will be a doubleheader against UW-Platteville Wednesday at Prucha Field in Whitewater. The first game is scheduled to start at 12:30, resuming a previous game from April 22nd, that was suspeneded due to darkness. Whitewater was leading that game 7-5 in the top of the ninth innning. Following the conclusion of that game is when the scheduled doubleheader will begin. Prucha Field is west of Perkins Stadium and north of Williams Center on the north end of the UW-W campus. Free parking is adjacent to the field.
For additional information: John Vodenlich UW-W coach
