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The No. 15 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater baseball team looks to solidify its position for an NCAA Division III Tournament berth while seeking a fifth conference tournament title this weekend at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship at Copeland Park in La Crosse, Wis.
 
The Warhawks (27-12 overall), who are the No. 2 seed in the tournament after finishing 13-7 in league play, open the postseason Friday at 1 p.m. against third-seeded UW-Stevens Point.
 
UW-La Crosse, the nation's consensus No. 4 team and the top seed in the tournament, will face UW-Oshkosh Friday at 10 a.m.
 
The winners of the opening games will play Friday night at approximately 7 p.m. The losers will play in an elimination game at 4 p.m.
 
UW-Whitewater is a combined 6-6 against this year's field, including a 3-1 mark against UW-Stevens Point, its first opponent.
 
The Warhawks took three of four from the Pointers on April 9-10 at Miller Stadium. UW-Stevens Point took the opener by an 8-3 score as UW-Whitewater committed three costly errors that led to four unearned runs. The Warhawks took the next three contests by a combined 25-8 score, pounding out 35 hits over the three-game span.
 
Despite returning only two everyday positional starters, UW-Whitewater started the 2016 season with an 11-0 record, including a 9-0 mark in games played during the team's annual spring break trip to central Florida, the program's first unbeaten record in Florida since 2005.
 
The Warhawks' impressive trip included five wins over fellow 2015 NCAA qualifiers – Anderson (Ind.), Southern Maine, Castleton (Vt.) and twice against St. Scholastica (Minn.) – and a 13-1 victory over St. Thomas (Minn.), which is currently 24th in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25.
 
After taking five of six games between April 1-10, including a doubleheader sweep over Ripon, another 2015 NCAA participant, UW-Whitewater was swept by Concordia Chicago. The team recovered with a 7-3 mark between April 16-26 before dropping six of its next eight, including its first two shutout losses of the season.
 
The Warhawks wrapped up regular season play with eight games last week, winning five of their last six with a doubleheader split of St. Norbert and a four-game sweep over UW-Stout.
 
Entering postseason play, UW-Whitewater is led by a pitching staff with a team earned run average of 2.80, good for fourth in NCAA Division III. The staff also ranks third in the nation in walks plus hits per inning pitched, or WHIP (1.16), fifth in walks allowed per nine innings (2.33), eighth in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.93) and 16th in hits allowed per nine innings (8.15).
 
Senior Curtis Morgan (Green Lake/Green Lake), junior Ankur Shah (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles North), sophomores Lake Bachar (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton North) and Heath Renz (Jefferson, Wis./Jefferson) lead the team with five wins apiece.
 
In 11 appearances, all starts, Morgan (5-2) has compiled a 2.03 ERA and 42 strikeouts. Shah (5-1), a left-hander, owns a 2.17 ERA and a .225 opponents' batting average.
 
Renz (5-0) leads the team with 16 appearances, including two starts, and has a 2.43 ERA and a 32-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Bachar (5-5) leads the team in innings (60 2/3) and strikeouts (70).
 
Junior righty Mike Nompleggi (Oconto Falls/Oconto Falls) has provided five starts, compiling a 2-2 record, a 2.19 ERA and a .215 opponents' batting average.
 
In the bullpen, sophomore RHP Austin Jones (Wauwatosa, Wis./West) has yet to allow a run in 7 1/3 innings, and leads the team with four saves. Senior left-hander Connor Hurst (Waunakee/Waunakee) is 3-1 with a 3.03 ERA in 32 2/3 innings, and junior LHP John Olejniczak (Valparaiso, IN/Valparaiso) and freshman RHP Riley Gruetzmacher (Oconto Falls, Wis./Oconto Falls) have made 11 and 10 relief appearances, respectively.
 
The Warhawks are led offensively by freshman third baseman Cal Aldridge (Crystal Lake, Ill./Prairie Ridge). A two-time WIAC Position Player of the Week in 2016, Aldridge leads the team and ranks among league leaders in batting average (.407), hits (57), home runs (5), runs batted in (32), total bases (82), on-base percentage (.472) and slugging percentage (.586).
 
Junior infielder Steve Chamberlain (Rockford, IL/Guilford) ranks second on the team with a .380 batting average, while sophomore outfielder Daytona Bryden (Rockton, IL/Hononegah) is third at .378 and leads the team in walks (21) and is tied for the lead in stolen bases (14).
 
Jones and sophomore infielders Blake Fleischman (Germantown, Wis./Germantown) and Jordan Kuczynski (Germantown/Germantown) have been major run producers for UW-Whitewater. Jones is tied with Aldridge for the team lead with eight doubles and has 25 RBI, while Fleischman ranks second on the team with 27 RBI. Kuczynski enters postseason play with seven doubles and 24 RBI.
 
UW-Whitewater and UW-Stevens Point have combined to win 15 of the 18 WIAC Championships played since the tournament's inception in 1998. The Pointers have won eight of the last 11.