The No. 2 ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater baseball team began its 2019 campaign Friday afternoon by splitting a pair of games at Posey Field in Montgomery, Ala.
 
The Warhawks (1-1 overall) fell behind early in their season opener and were unable to complete the comeback in an 8-5 defeat against Spalding (Ky.). The team recovered later in the afternoon with a 13-1 triumph in seven innings over North Park (Ill.).
 
In the game against North Park (0-1), senior first baseman Cal Aldridge (Crystal Lake, Ill./Prairie Ridge) posted his seventh multi-homer game, finishing 3-for-4 with three runs scored and six runs batted in, and UW-Whitewater led from the start after tallying four first-inning runs.
 
Junior centerfielder Noah Jensen (Kenosha, Wis./Tremper) also knocked in four runs, and senior second baseman Nick Schrader (Cambridge, Wis./Jefferson), junior left fielder Lucas Price (Spring Green, Wis./River Valley) and sophomore shortstop Nick Santoro (Naperville, Ill./Waubonsie Valley) each collected two hits.
 
Sophomore Westin Muir (St. Charles, Ill./North) tossed five scoreless frames to earn the win, allowing only two hits and one walk while striking out six in the effort. Freshman Hayden Fox (Stockton, Ill./Stockton) pitched a scoreless inning in relief, and junior Keith Kutzler (Kenosha, Wis./Tremper) allowed only one run as he pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh.
 
Aldridge doubled home Santoro and Schrader in the top of the first, and junior right fielder Alex Doud (Waukesha, Wis./Mukwonago) and senior third baseman Connor Schneider (Crystal Lake, Ill./Prairie Ridge) drove home runs with productive outs later in the same inning.
 
Jensen posted an RBI groundout in the fourth, and Santoro singled home senior catcher Mike Aiello (Racine, Wis./Horlick) to make it 6-0.
 
Aldridge mashed a solo homer in the fifth and added a three-run shot in the seventh to make it a 10-run game. Later in the seventh, Jensen knocked a two-out, three-run double down the left field line to account for the final tally.
 
Against Spalding (1-0), the Warhawks trailed 7-1 through 3 1/2 innings and were unable to recover despite tallying runs in the fifth, eighth and ninth innings.
 
Aldridge recorded two hits and one RBI, and Schrader knocked in two runs. Santoro collected two hits and two runs scored, Aiello hit a solo home run and junior first baseman Ben Wilkins (Sussex, Wis./Lake Country Lutheran) drove in a run on a sacrifice fly.
 
Senior pitcher Michael Kaska (Spring Grove, Ill./Richmond-Burton Community) took the loss, striking out five over three innings of work. Juniors Larkin Hanselmann (Cary, Ill./Cary-Grove) and Riley Gruetzmacher (Oconto Falls, Wis./Oconto Falls) each pitched multiple innings in relief, and senior Jim Perkins (Cary, Ill./Cary-Grove) tossed a scoreless ninth with two strikeouts.
 
UW-Whitewater concludes play in Alabama Saturday at 3 p.m. against host Huntingdon.