Professional poker player Eric Baldwin, honored before the game for donating $200,000 to have lighting installed on the UW-Whitewater baseball field, was the only one with a rabbit's foot Wednesday.  UW-W batters totaled 35 runs, 36 hits, including 15 for extra bases, in a doubleheader sweep of UW-Oshkosh Wednesday at Prucha Field at Jim Miller Stadium.  Whitewater won game one 22-6 in seven innings, and 13-6 in the nightcap.

Photo Gallery (courtesy of Callista Hoffstead)

Game One: UW-Whitewater 22 UW-Oshkosh 6 (seven innings)
Box Score

Junior lefthander Riley Tincher (Oregon/Oregon) only had to shut the Titans down in the first inning to get all the offensive support he would need.  UW-W scored seven times in the bottom of the first, on six hits, to settle the issue early.  Catcher Rob Coe (Appleton/North) doubled in two runs, leftfielder Matt Beyer (Janesville/Parker) tripled in two, and center fielder Jordan Stine (Merrill/Merrill ) singled in two to provide the key hits in the inning.

Tincher gave up solo runs in the second and fourth, and two in the third, but got his five innings in to up his record to 10-0.  Tincher gave up nine hits and a walk with three strikeouts in his stint.  

Whitewater scored in every inning, tacking on three in the second, two in the third, five in the fourth, one in the fifth and four more in the sixth for their biggest run production since a 27-12 win over Salem State (MA) March 21 in Florida.  

The Warhawks recorded the first triple play in school history in the fourth inning. Oshkosh's Kyle Kannenberg lined out to Tincher on the mound who quickly relayed to Nick Rechlitz (Milwaukee/Marquette) at third catching the Titan runner off balance. Rechlitz then fired over to second baseman Ben Kuhlmann (Minneapolis, MN/Southwest) to record the triple play.

Beyer went 3x5 with five runs batted in, DH Ryan Leavitt (Merrill/Merrill) was 3x3 with four RBI's; first baseman Jeff Donovan (Wauwatosa/East) collected three hits, three runs scored and a pair of RBI's; and Stine had three hits, scored twice and drove in two from his leadoff spot.

Third baseman Blake Berger led the Titan offense with a 3x4 day with four runs batted in.  One of his hits was his sixth home run of the season.  

Game Two:
Box Score

Whitewater had all the runs it would need after three innings in game two.  The Warhawks scored four times in the first, with the big blow coming on right fielder Daniel Putnam (Ashland /Ashland)'s fifth home run of the season, accounting for two runs.  Another came in when Beyer was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. 

UW-W added two in the second, one coming in on a Titan error, and two more in the fourth on Stine's second homer of the year to lead 8-1 after three.

UW-O cut the margin to 8-3 with a pair of runs in the fifth, but gave one back with an error in the sixth, 9-3.

Beyer homered to plate two more for UW-W in the seventh, and center fielder Nolan Fadness tripled in two for UW-O in the eighth.  

UW-W starter Jason Hooper (Lake Mills/Lake Mills) went six and two thirds, giving up four runs on six hits, to up his record to 4-2.  Stine and second baseman Ben Kuhlmann (Minneapolis, MN/Southwest) had three hits for the Warhawks, with the duo accounting for five runs scored and four RBI's between them.

Troy Mrkvicka, 1-3, took the loss for UW-O.  Fadness and first baseman Derek Hiroskey split six hits, with Fadness adding two runs scored and two runs batted in.

Misc
UW-Whitewater, ranked second in the national Division III poll, is 29-4 overall and in first place in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a 17-3 mark.  UW-Oshkosh is 12-18, and 5-11 in the WIAC.  The winner of the WIAC championship will host the WIAC Tournament May 14-15.

The Warhawks will wrap up the WIAC schedule with doubleheaders at UW-Superior Saturday and Sunday.  The regular season will wrap up at home May 9 with Concordia University (WI), the doubleheader beginning at 1:00.

For additional information: John Vodenlich, UW-W head coach