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The No. 12 ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater baseball team suffered a pair of losses Saturday as its 2019 season came to a close on the second day of the Whitewater, Wisconsin Regional of the NCAA Division III Championship at Prucha Field at James B. Miller Stadium.
The Warhawks (35-12 overall) were defeated 7-5 against 18th-ranked Webster (Mo.), the regional's No. 1 seed, to open the day before being downed 13-4 against North Central (Ill.) in an elimination game.
UW-Whitewater swept the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championships and was competing in its 12th consecutive NCAA Tournament and 22nd overall.
Against Webster (34-10), the Warhawks mounted a late comeback, posting two runs in the top of the seventh and two more in the top of the ninth. The Gorloks, who scored six times in the fourth inning, posted the final out of the game with UW-W's tying run on first base.
Junior right fielder
Alex Doud (Waukesha, Wis./Mukwonago) tallied three hits, two runs scored and one run batted in, blasting a solo homer to right field to tie the game at 1-1 in the second inning.
Senior second baseman
Nick Schrader (Cambridge, Wis./Jefferson) collected two hits and two RBI, and freshman left fielder
Matt Korman (Waterford, Wis./Waterford Union) knocked a solo homer to lead off the ninth and added another hit and an additional run scored. Senior third baseman
Cal Aldridge (Crystal Lake, Ill./Prairie Ridge) totaled two hits.
Senior pitcher
Michael Kaska (Spring Grove, Ill./Richmond-Burton Community) took the loss to drop to 6-4 on the season. Sophomores
Connor Spear (Highland, Ind./Mount Carmel (Ill.)),
Evan Sigmund (Oconto Falls, Wis./Oconto Falls) and freshman
Hayden Fox (Stockton, Ill./Stockton) followed in relief, holding Webster scoreless over the final 5 1/3 innings to allow UW-Whitewater to attempt its comeback.
In the game against North Central (33-12), the Warhawks started the game with a 2-0 lead thanks to solo home runs by sophomore
Nick Santoro (Naperville, Ill./Waubonsie Valley) and Aldridge, whose long fly ball to left field was his 16th of the season and 47th career homer, tying Pat Tobiasz for most in program history.
From there, the Cardinals scored 10 unanswered runs, including seven on a pair of homers, to take a 10-2 advantage in the fifth inning.
Schrader and Korman plated one run apiece in the seventh and eighth innings to bring UW-Whitewater within 10-4, but North Central tacked on three more in the eighth.
Aldridge finished 2-for-4, and senior catcher
Mike Aiello (Racine, Wis./Horlick) reached base three times with two walks and one hit, and added one run scored.
Sophomore
Matt O'Sullivan (Sugar Grove, Ill./Kaneland) was dealt the loss, ending the season with a 7-5 record. He was relieved by five different Warhawks over the final six frames.
Following the conclusion of the regional, Aldridge, Doud and sophomore pitcher
Westin Muir (St. Charles, Ill./North) were named to the All-Tournament Team.
UW-Whitewater's six seniors – Aiello, Aldridge, Kaska, Schrader,
Jim Perkins (Cary, Ill./Cary-Grove) and
Connor Schneider (Crystal Lake, Ill./Prairie Ridge) – helped the program make four trips to the NCAA Tournament over the last four years, including a trip to the Division III World Series in 2016. The team also claimed three WIAC championships and a pair of conference tournament titles over that span.
