Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The UW-Whitewater baseball team, ranked eleventh in the D3baseball.com poll, split with second ranked University of St. Thomas at the Metrodome last Thursday night. The Warhawks won the opener 4-2 and fell in the nightcap 6-4. UW-W is 1-1 this season and UST is 4-2.

UW-W opened the 2013 season red hot from the batter's box. In the top of the first inning, a one out walk was followed up by Jared Fon (Germantown/Germantown)'s single to center field. With runners on second and third, Marty Herum (River Falls/River Falls) picked up where he left off last season, notching a two-RBI double to center field. Sam Keller Jr. (Milwaukee/Riverside) made it back-to-back doubles with an RBI shot to right field to give the Warhawks three runs in their first at-bat of the season.

The Tommies opened with a triple, with the runner brought in on a sacrifice fly to bring the score to 3-1 in favor of UW-W after one complete inning.

St. Thomas added another run in the bottom of the third with the help of two Whitewater errors, but the Warhawks came back with a run of their own in the top of the fourth.  JT Schneider (Oak Creek/Oak Creek) singled with one out, stole second, advanced to third on a UST error and scored on a David Cladis (Joliet, IL/Joliet Catholic) RBI single to left field to end the scoring in the game.

The Warhawks posted eight hits in the game led by Fon and Herum, co-position players of the year in the WIAC last season, who were 2x4 from the plate. Herum added two RBI's.

Senior right hander Justin Lambert (Mt. Horeb/Mt. Horeb) picked up the win on the mound for Whitewater allowing four hits in seven innings pitched. Steve Maher, the d3baseball.com Midwest Region Pitcher of the Year last season, recorded the loss for UST, allowing four earned runs on eight hits in six innings on the mound.

The Warhawks, the home team in game two, found themselves trailing 2-0 after the top of the first but opened their half of the inning much like the first game. Michael Gonzalez (Delavan/Delavan-Darien) led off with a single to left followed by a single to right from Friend. A fielder's choice in the next at bat left runners on the corners. Herum brought in the first run with a SAC fly to left. Keller's single put runners on the corners for the second time in the inning followed by a two-RBI triple off of the bat of Steve Bartlein (South Milwaukee/South Milwaukee) giving UW-W a 3-2 lead after one complete inning.

The Tommies regained the lead in the top of the fourth with two runs off of three hits. Whitewater evened the score in their half of the inning with Schneider crossing the plate on a sacrifice fly by Fon but UST came back with two more runs in the top of the fifth, the last runs of the game, to make the score 6-4 St. Thomas.

Both teams posted nine hits in the game. Gonzalez and Cladis recorded two hits apiece for the Warhawks with Bartlein adding two runs batted in.

Lefty senior Quintin Zander (Black Earth/Wisconsin Heights) picked up the loss on the mound for UW-W with 1.1 innings pitched after entering the game with the score knotted 4-4. The Tommies used four pitchers in the game with Jacob Nelson recording the win in 2.2 innings on the mound.

Whitewater will travel to St. Louis, Missouri March 15 and 16 for a 1:00 game against Fontbonne University Friday and an 11:00 start against Illinois Wesleyan University Saturday.



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