After a split on Saturday, UW-Whitewater and UW-Stevens Point split again on Monday in Whitewater with game one going to the 'Hawks 8-1 and game two to the Pointers 15-9.  UW-W remains in first place in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a 15-3 record; they are 27-4 overall.  The Pointers are in second in the WIAC with an 11-5 record and they are 22-9 overall.

photo gallery (courtesy of Kristine Johnson)

Game one box score

With the wind blowing straight in one would think runs would be hard to come by; not the case for UW-W in game one.  Although there were only three extra base hits in the game (two for UW-W), the 'Hawks managed to plate eight runs.

Their first run came in the bottom of the second on a Mike Kenseth (Milwaukee/West Allis Hale) ground out that scored Ben Kuhlmann (Minneapolis, MN/Southwest).  Point tied the game in the top of the third with their only run of the game.

The rest of the way it was all Warhawks.  UW-W went up 3-1 in the fourth on a two-RBI single by Rob Coe (Appleton/North) and added one more in the bottom of the fifth on a Jeff Donovan (Wauwatosa/East) single.

A four-run eighth put the game out of reach for the Pointers.  Nick Rechlitz (Milwaukee/Marquette) drove in the first run, Ryan Leavitt (Merrill/Merrill) the second, and Donovan the last two.

Aaron Leitner (Chilton/Chilton ) pitched seven and a third, scattering five hits and one run while striking out six.  Leitner earned the victory and improves to 4-1 this season.  Ben Versnik (West Allis/Hale) came on in the eighth and pitched the remainder of the game giving up just one hit to the six batters he faced.

Game two box score

Game two started eerily similar to game one with the 'Hawks taking the early lead followed by Point coming back to tie things up.  In this game the Warhawks went up 2-0 in the bottom of the first on a two-run double by Ben Kuhlmann (Minneapolis, MN/Southwest).  Point came back to tie it up with a run in the top of the second and another in the top of the fourth.

UW-W regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI ground out by Kuhlmann and added two more in the bottom of the seventh to take a 5-2 lead.  Jeff Donovan (Wauwatosa/East) and Leavitt drove in the runs in the inning.

Point ripped away the lead from the 'Hawks in the top of the eighth scoring four runs, three on a double by Sam Spurney.  UW-W fought back to tie things up in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Nick Rechlitz (Milwaukee/Marquette), but then things went south.

The Pointers scored nine runs in the top of the ninth to take a 15-6 lead.  UW-W used six pitchers in the inning as Point brought thirteen batters to the plate.  The inning featured five consecutive RBI singles with two outs.

The 'Hawks mounted a rally in the bottom of the ninth but fell short.  Putnam walked to start the inning and Donovan followed with a single.  Kuhlmann doubled to drive in Putnam and then Donovan scored on an RBI groundout by Jordan Stine (Merrill/Merrill ).  A fly out by Fred Gromalak (Kettle Moriane/Kettle Moraine) plated one more but the rally would end there as Pointer pitcher Ryan Iverson got the final batter to fly out.

For the day the Warhawks totaled 22 hits (11 in each game), and had six players record multiple hits.  Kuhlmann and Donovan each drove in four runs while Coe chipped in two.

UW-W will host UW-Oshkosh in a twinbill beginning at 1:00 pm on Wednesday, April 28.  The Warhawks will honor former player Eric Baldwin at the game for his donation to the program to buy lights for the field.

For additional information, John Vodenlich