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Whitewater, Wisconsin Regional Web Page
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For the 12th consecutive season, and 22nd time in program history, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater baseball team is prepping for NCAA DIII Championship play. The Warhawks are set to host a four-team regional beginning Friday at 11 a.m. at Prucha Field at Miller Stadium on the campus of UW-Whitewater.

The No. 12 Warhawks, 34-10, earned a Pool "C", or at-large, bid into the national tournament and will start the double-elimination regional Friday at 3 p.m. against College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin champion North Central College (Ill.). UW-W recently moved up from No. 14 to No. 12 in the D3baseball.com Top 25 and from No. 13 to No. 12 in the American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball Top 30.

For the first time since 2009, the Warhawks began their season in February. UW-Whitewater traveled to Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Ala., for a trio of games, finishing 1-2.

A month later the Warhawks resumed play when they took their annual spring trip to Florida. This year they traveled first to Pensacola, Florida to play three games at the minor league Blue Wahoos Stadium before heading to Auburndale for four more games. UW-W went 4-3 down south and returned home at the end of March to open their home schedule.

UW-W swept St. Scholastica in a non-conference doubleheader before taking three of four from Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rival UW-Oshkosh.

A 14-game winning streak followed, starting with a road doubleheader sweep of UW-Platteville, four-game sweeps at home of UW-Stout and Finlandia, another pair of wins at a neutral site over UW-Platteville and a single game victory at home over St. Norbert.

The streak was snapped on a road trip to UW-La Crosse, where the Warhawks split a four-game series with the Eagles.

The Warhawks finished the regular season by going 6-1 in the first five days of May to move to 31-9, making 2019 the 12th straight year of 30 or more wins. Along the way, UW-W also clinched their third consecutive WIAC regular season title, the sixth in the last seven seasons and the 19th in program history.

After winning the WIAC regular season title, the Warhawks earned the right to host the WIAC Championship, which they went on to win for the sixth time in program history and second time in the last three years.

UW-W is led by WIAC Position Player of the Year Cal Aldridge (Crystal Lake, Ill./Prairie Ridge). The senior All-American third baseman is hitting .387 this season and leads the team in runs (54), home runs (15), runs batted in (44), slugging percentage (.767) and walks (26). Earlier this season he became the school's all-time hits leader, and is one home run shy from tying the school's career record of 47.

Junior Noah Jensen (Kenosha, Wis./Tremper), a first team All-WIAC pick, is having his best season as a Warhawk, leading the team with a .417 batting average. He ranks among the top three on the team in runs (44), triples (4), RBI (35) and slugging percentage (.659).

Sophomore shortstop Nick Schrader (Cambridge, Wis./Jefferson), another one of UW-W's first team All-WIAC selections, is second on the team and third in the WIAC in batting average (.391). Schrader also ranks among the top three in the league in on base percentage (.483), runs (44) and hits (65).

Mike Aiello (Racine, Wis./Horlick), the Max Sparger Scholar-Athlete and first team All-WIAC catcher, has been a force at the plate as well. Aiello is batting .351 with 54 hits, 44 runs, eight doubles, eight home runs and 33 runs batted in.

Two-time WIAC Position Player of the Week Nick Santoro (Naperville, Ill./Waubonsie Valley) also earned All-WIAC first team and is one of the four Warhawks batting above .380. Santoro leads the Warhawks with 70 hits and 182 at bats. The sophomore has scored 46 runs and leads the team with 16 doubles and seven triples.

The Warhawks rank third in the nation with a .347 team batting average.

On the mound, the Warhawks have a solid rotation that ranks fourth in the nation and tops in the WIAC with a 2.86 ERA. Westin Muir (St. Charles, Ill./North), Matt O'Sullivan (Sugar Grove, Ill./Kaneland) and Connor Spear (Highland, Ind./Mount Carmel (Ill.)) have won seven games apiece, while Michael Kaska (Spring Grove, Ill./Richmond-Burton Community) has won six. All four are first team All-WIAC selections.

Earlier this season O'Sullivan pitched a no-hitter and is second on the team (among those who have pitched 50+ innings) with a 2.39 ERA and 79 strikeouts. Muir leads the team with a 2.04 ERA and has given up just 17 runs in 10 appearances.

Kaska is coming off of a complete game one-hitter in his last start and carries a 2.59 ERA with 93 strikeouts and just 11 walks.

Spear has contributed as a starter and out of the bullpen adding a save to his seven wins. He has a 1.51 ERA across 41.2 innings pitched.

North Central, the Warhawks' first opponent, is 31-11 overall and led by senior outfielder Jeremy Quade and sophomore catcher Rob Marinec. Quade leads the team with a .377 batting average, 61 hits and 46 runs, while Marinec is hitting .356 and leads the team in triples (4), home runs (9), slugging percentage (.650) and total bases (104).

The Cardinals' pitching staff is led by Charlie Klemm, who is 8-0 with a 2.03 ERA and 71 strikeouts.

The winner of Friday's North Central/UW-Whitewater game will take on the winner of the Bethany Lutheran/Webster game on Saturday at 11 a.m. The two losers will face off in an elimination game at 3:00 p.m., and another elimination game will follow at 6:00 p.m.

The remaining one-loss team will compete against the unbeaten team Sunday at 12 p.m., with a 4:00 p.m. game scheduled if the unbeaten team falls in the noon contest.

Webster (32-10) earned an automatic berth by winning the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship. Bethany Lutheran, 23-16, is an automatic qualifier by virtue of winning the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Championship.