WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – The No. 1 ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater baseball team tallied four runs in the top of the seventh inning Saturday and held off rallies in the seventh and eighth to defeat Rutgers-Camden (N.J.) 8-7 in a non-conference contest at Chain 'O Lakes Park.
 
The Warhawks (3-1 overall) were sharp defensively and generated 14 hits on offense to emerge with the win, the third on their nine-game, eight-day spring break trip to Florida.
 
UW-Whitewater turned a 5-4 deficit into an 8-5 advantage with a big top of the seventh inning. Senior left fielder Kyle Haen (Madison/Edgewood) tied the game with a single down the right field line, and senior shortstop Mikole Pierce (DePere/DePere) gave the team the lead for good with a hard-hit infield single to third base.
 
Pierce later scored on a double to deep left center by junior first baseman Casey Power (Ontario, Canada/Belle River), and senior third baseman Adam Gregory (Edgerton/Edgerton) made it a three-run lead with a sacrifice fly to right.
 
The Raptors (2-8) cut their deficit to two on a two-out single in the seventh, but senior catcher Mike Mierow (Brookfield/Central) threw to second to get the hitter, who was trying to advance on the throw to the plate.
 
Rutgers-Camden threatened again in the bottom of the eighth, but Mierow picked a runner off second for the second out of the frame, and sophomore pitcher Mike Nompleggi (Oconto Falls/Oconto Falls) came on to induce a fly-out to end the inning with the Warhawks' lead still in tact.
 
Nompleggi, a right-hander, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his first save of the year. Sophomore lefty John Olejniczak (Valparaiso, IN/Valparaiso) was credited with the win, his first of the season, after tossing 2 2/3 innings of relief.
 
Haen and Pierce led UW-Whitewater with three hits apiece. Haen, Pierce, Power and Gregory – the Warhawks' 2-through-5 hitters –knocked in two runs each and combined for 10 of the team's 14 hits.
 
Senior second baseman Nick Kuhlmann (Minneapolis, MN/Minneapolis Southwest) added two hits and scored a pair of runs.
 
The Warhawks' four pitchers combined to leave 10 Raptors stranded on the base paths. Senior captain Matt Roberts (Manitowoc/Roncalli), a right-hander, started and completed 4 1/3 innings before being relieved by sophomore righty Matt Langlie (Mundelein, IL/Mundelein), who went 2/3 of an inning.
 
Power started the scoring for UW-Whitewater in the top of the first with a fielder's choice ground ball to score Haen from third. Gregory made it 2-0 with a sacrifice fly to plate Pierce.
 
After a Rutgers-Camden tally in the bottom of the second, the Warhawks responded with two outs in the top of the fifth as Haen and Pierce each contributed run-scoring hits to make it 4-1.
 
The Raptors registered four unanswered runs over the next two frames to take a 5-4 lead, setting up UW-Whitewater's big seventh.
 
The Warhawks resume play in Florida Sunday against North Central (Ill.). First pitch is slated for 11 a.m. Central Time at Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in Auburndale, Fla.
 
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