The UW-Whitewater baseball team tightened their hold on first place in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with two more wins over UW-La Crosse on Sunday in La Crosse.  The 'Hawks won game one 8-6 and game two 8-4.  UW-W is now 23-2 overall and 11-1 in the WIAC while the Eagles fall to 8-14 overall and 1-7 in conference play.

Game one box score
Game two box score

UW-Whitewater has opened up a two-game lead over UW-Stevens Point for the conference lead.  Stevens Point split with UW-Superior on Sunday.

La Crosse scored one in the bottom of the fourth to take an early 1-0 lead after an error allowed Jay Fanta to score.  UW-W used a three-run third to rip the lead away from the Eagles.  Ryan Leavitt (Merrill/Merrill) singled in Tim Conroy (Barrington, IL/Barrington) for the first run and Ben Kuhlmann (Minneapolis, MN/Southwest) doubled in Leavitt and Nick Rechlitz (Milwaukee/Marquette) for the other two.

Two more runs by the 'Hawks in the sixth, one on an error and the other on a Rechlitz single, opened up a 5-1 lead, but it didn't last long as UW-L regained the lead with five runs in the seventh.  Following suit, UW-W took back the lead in the top of the eight on a three-run homer by Leavitt.

Kyle Lee (Beaver Dam/Beaver Dam) and Ben Versnik (West Allis/Hale) combined to pitch a scoreless eighth and ninth to preserve the lead and get the win for UW-W.  Versnik earned the save, his third of the season.

Game two got its first run in the top of the first when Jeff Donovan (Wauwatosa/East) doubled home Leavitt.  Another run by the 'Hawks in the third gave them a 2-0 lead.  Conroy padded that lead on an RBI single to center that scored Jordan Stine (Merrill/Merrill ) in the seventh.

UW-L fought back with two runs in the bottom of the seventh and two more in the bottom of the eighth to take a 4-3 lead, but a big ninth inning by the 'Hawks proved to be too much for La Crosse to overcome.  UW-W scored five runs in the frame with five different players recording an RBI.  Stine, Rob Coe (Appleton/North), Mike Kenseth (Milwaukee/West Allis Hale), Rechlitz, and Daniel Putnam (Ashland /Ashland) each drove in a run for UW-W who batted around in the inning.

La Crosse was able to get a runner all the way to third in the ninth but Versnik struckout the next two batters to end the game.

Leavitt continues to hit well this season going 3-for-9 on Sunday while driving in four and scoring three.  He is hitting .406 this season in 18 games.  Coe is also doing a lot of damage this season at the plate hitting .400 after his 2-for-6 performance on Sunday.

UW-W will look to build on their current four game win streak on Wednesday when they host UW-Oshkosh in a doubleheader beginning at 1:00 pm.

For additional information, John Vodenlich