UW-L Drops Two Games at UW-Stevens Point

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Stevens Point , Wis. – The UW-La Crosse baseball team dropped both games of a doubleheader at UW-Stevens Point Wednesday afternoon at University Field. The Pointers, ranked 24th in NCAA Division III, won the opener, 13-1 in seven innings, before coming back to earn a 9-7 victory in the nightcap. UW-L drops to 8-8 overall and 1-3 in the WIAC with the two losses while UW-Stevens Point improves to 9-6 overall and 3-1 in the league with their wins.

In the opener, Britton Wolf (1-2) was the losing pitcher for UW-L, going 4.0 innings, allowing 10 hits, seven runs (all earned) and three walks with two strikeouts. UW-Stevens Point's Mike Thrun (1-1) pitched a complete game, 7.0 innings, allowing four hits and one run (earned) while striking out four.

The Pointers scored twice in the bottom of the first as Doug Coe had a two-run single scoring Jared Surman and Tim Schlosser. UW-Stevens Point added three runs in the second highlighted by Coe's two-run home run. UW-L scored its only run in the top of the third as Josh Weber scored on a Darren O'Donnell groundout. UW-Stevens Point tallied a run in the bottom of the inning on Stewart Larsen's home run and another run in the fourth to take a 7-1 lead on Brandon Scheidler's home run. The Pointers scored six times in the sixth to finish the scoring, including four unearned runs. Kyle Cummings had a two-run double.

Weber and Joey Casper each finished 2-for-3 at the plate for UW-L while Surman, Coe, Brad Frank, Scheidler and Larsen each had two hits for UW-Stevens Point.

In the nightcap, UW-L scored four runs in the top of second as Cory Poppitz had a two-run single and Casper and O'Donnell each had RBI singles. UW-Stevens Point came right back in its half of the second to tie the game as Ben Warwick hit a three-run home run and Justin Bushong had a run-scoring single.

The Eagles took a 5-4 lead in the top of the third as Tony Peterson hit a lead-off home run, but the Pointers tied it in the fourth and took a 7-5 lead with two runs in the bottom of the fifth on Larsen's two-run home run. UW-L forced a 7-7 tie in the sixth as O'Donnell had an RBI groundout scoring Storm Gram and Mike Schmidt hit a solo home run, but UW-Stevens Point put up solo runs in the seventh and eighth. The Pointers scored the uneventual winning run on an Eagles' error in the seventh and Coe hit his second home run of the day in the eighth.

Ross Benitz (2-3) took the loss for the Eagles, pitching 3.1 innings, allowing five hits, two runs (one earned) while striking out two. Luke Zurbriggen started for UW-L, going 4.2 innings, allowing eight hits, seven runs (all earned) and three walks with three strikeouts. Travis Kempf (3-0) picked up the win for UW-Stevens Point, pitching 1.0 inning with one strikeout while Jeff Zielke got his third save of the season, pitching 2.0 innings,a llowing two hits and one walk while striking out three.

O'Donnell finished 3-for-5 with two RBI for UW-L while Peterson was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI. Poppitz finished 2-for-5 with a run scored and two RBI. Coe finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI for UW-Stevens Point while Bushong and Warwick each had two hits.

UW-L returns to action Saturday, April 5 hosting UW-Platteville in WIAC doubleheader starting at noon at North Campus Field.