UW-Whitewater and UW-Stout didn't settle much in their four game matchup this season, ending their season series with a split, Stout winning 6-1 and Whitewater taking game two 13-3, Monday in Menomonie. The teams also split a doubleheader Saturday.
game one box score
game two box score
Stout scored single runs in the first and third, but Matt Beyer (Janesville/Parker) 's home run in the top of the fifth cut the margin in half. That would prove to be the only run Stout's Ethan Smallbrook would allow. UW-S added two runs in the bottom of the fifth, and single runs in the sixth and seventh for the final margin.
Smallbrook went the distance, giving up eight hits, walking two and striking out four. Ben Kuhlmann (Minneapolis, MN/Southwest) and Tony Wong (Appleton/West) accounted for half of Whitewater's hits, with Kuhlmann also getting on via a walk. Greg Smolinski went 3x4 for the Blue Devils, also driving in three runs. Casey Dittel also had three hits for UW-S, who totaled ten as a team.
UW-W scored all the runs it would need in game two, four, in the top of the first, with Wong's three run homer at the big blast. Kuhlmann singled in a run in the second to make it 5-0 Whitewater, but the Blue Devils scored twice in the third, and it remained 5-2 until the sixth.
Matt Millar (Stoughton/Stoughton) led off the sixth with a home run, and two singles, a sacrifice and a passed ball brought in the second tally of the inning to make it 7-2. Stout scored once in the sixth, but Kevin Zalnis (Woodstock, IL/Woodstock) led off the seventh with a double and came home on an error, and Mike Ross (Crystal Lake, IL/Crystal Lake South) used a squeeze play to bring in another run to up Whitewater's lead to 9-3 after seven. Zalnis' grand slam in the eighth made it 13-3, and the game ended early because of the run differential rule.
Doug Hanson (Grayslake, IL/Grayslake) went six innings to earn the win for UW-W, with Williams Lovera (Tinaquillo, Venezuela/Tinaquillo) pitching two innings of scoreless relief. Travis Wessels (Tomah/Tomah), Beyer and Zalnis collected three hits each for UW-W, with Zalnis and Wong combining to drive in seven of Whitewater's thirteen runs. Stout used four pitchers in the game.
UW-W, 21-11 overall, is 13-8 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with the split. UW-Oshkosh, is in first place at 12-6 with UW-Stevens Point, 11-7 in third. The WIAC plays a twenty-four game schedule. The winner of the conference title earns the right to host the league tournament May 8-9. UW-Stout is 16-14 overall and 7-11 in league play.
UW-Whitewater will make Ernie Banks proud Wednesday, closing the 2009 regular season home schedule, and the WIAC regular season, with three games Wednesday, April 29. The Warhawks and Pioneers will finish the second game of their April 22 doubleheader that had to be suspended with Whitewater leading 7-5 in the top of the ninth. The teams will play their scheduled doubleheader at the conclusion of the suspended game. The games get underway at 12:30 at Prucha Field on the UW-W campus. Prucha Field is west of Perkins Stadium and north of Williams Center on the north end of campus. Free parking is adjacent to the field.
For additional information: John Vodenlich, UW-W coach
