The No. 3 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater baseball team finished a four-game season series against 15th-ranked UW-Stevens Point Wednesday, finishing with a 2-2 record in the set following a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader in Stevens Point, Wis.
 
The Warhawks (26-7 overall, 14-6 WIAC) dropped the opener 3-2 before falling 15-5 in seven innings in the second game.
 
UW-Whitewater is now second in the conference standings, trailing UW-La Crosse by three games in the win column. The Warhawks need to win three out of four games this weekend at UW-Stout to claim a share of the WIAC regular season championship. UW-Whitewater would take the title outright and host next week's WIAC Tournament with a four-game sweep.
 
Despite outhitting the Pointers (23-11, 12-8) by a 10-6 margin in Game 1, the Warhawks left 12 runners on base and were held to a pair of second-inning runs.
 
Senior first baseman Casey Power (Ontario, Canada/Belle River) led UW-Whitewater with three hits, while senior left fielder Trey Cannon (Palatine, IL/Palatine) and senior shortstop Mikole Pierce (DePere/DePere) tallied two hits apiece.
 
Sophomore pitcher John Olejniczak (Valparaiso, IN/Valparaiso) took the hard-luck loss to drop to 2-1 for the year. The left-hander allowed just one run in 5 2/3 innings of relief and totaled three strikeouts.
 
After scoring twice in the second, UW-Stevens Point put two on with one out in the third, but Olejniczak came on and got the last two outs of the inning to keep the deficit at two.
 
Power led off the top of the fourth with a solo homer, his fourth of the season, to left center. The Warhawks tied the affair when senior designated hitter Adam Gregory (Edgerton/Edgerton) plated Cannon with a one-out base hit up the middle.
 
UW-Whitewater left the bases loaded in the fifth and runners at the corners in the sixth. The Pointers took the lead for good in the bottom of the sixth on a solo home run.
 
The Warhawks had another good chance to tie or take the lead in the seventh, but left the bases full for the second time in three innings.
 
In the nightcap, UW-Stevens Point tallied nine unanswered runs in the first three innings and didn't look back. UW-Whitewater plated four in the top of the fourth thanks to run-scoring hits by Gregory, senior catcher Mike Mierow (Brookfield/Central) and freshman right fielder Will Helbing (Waunakee, Wis./Waunakee).
 
Senior second baseman Nick Kuhlmann (Minneapolis, MN/Minneapolis Southwest) finished 3-for-4 to lead the Warhawks' offense. Helbing was 2-for-3, while Pierce knocked in a run in the seventh with a groundout.
 
Sophomore pitcher Ankur Shah (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles North) started the game and took the loss, falling to 0-1 for the season.
 
Saturday's doubleheader at UW-Stout begins at noon in Menomonie.