UW-La Crosse Falls to Coe College at NCAA Regional

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La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team fell 11-5 to Coe College (Iowa) Friday night at the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional held at Copeland Park.  UW-L falls to 30-13 on the season and will face the winner of UW-Whitewater/Concordia University-Chicago (Ill.) on Saturday, May 16 at 1:30 p.m in an elimination game.  Coe (Iowa) improves to 34-12 and advances to Sunday's championship game.  

Coe (Iowa) scored in the top of the first on a Jory Heckenberg single to left field driving in Craig Konrardy to make it 1-0.

UW-L got on the board in the bottom of the second with an unearned run.  Shane Adler scored from third as Travis Buxton-Verstegen reached first base on a throwing error by the shortstop with two outs to even the score at 1-1. 

Coe (Iowa) broke the game open in the top of the fourth against Adler, scoring six runs on six hits as 11 batters went to the plate.  A one-out double down the right field line from Grant Henning got things started.  Michael Redmond singled to left and Cole Tomlinson walked to load the bases.  Alex Zwanziger walked to bring in Henning giving the Kohawks a 2-1 lead.  Konrardy followed with a single up the middle to drive in two runs to make it 4-1.  Jameson Lavery came on in relief of Adler and was greeted by a single by Michael Goerdt. AJ Reuter followed with a run-scoring single and Jack Hoffman's two-run single gave Coe a 7-1 advantage.  Heckenberg's RBI single to left in the top of the sixth drove in Goerdt to give the Kohawks an 8-1 lead.  

UW-L got a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh to cut the deficit to 8-3.  Eric Vatch singled with one out and scored on Alex Cordova's RBI double before Taylor Kohlwey's single advanced Cordova to third.  Justin Anderson followed with a sacrifice fly to knock in Cordova.

Coe (Iowa) added three runs in the ninth to take a 11-3 lead on Goerdt's two-run double scoring pinch-runner Thomas Simon and Konrardy while Reuter's double knocked in Goerdt.

The Eagles tallied two runs in the bottom of the ninth on Anderson's RBI single and Ben Morgan's RBI double.

Adler (0-3) suffered the loss for UW-L, going 3.1 innings, allowing seven hits, six runs and four walks while striking out three.  Lavery did not record an out, allowing three hits one run while Troy Kenkel went 5.2 innings, allowing eight hits, four runs and one walk with eight strikeouts.

Kohlwey went 3-for-4 with a run scored while Cordova finished 2-for-5 with one run and one RBI and Anderson went 2-for-3 with two RBI.

Ben Jacobson (7-3) earned the win for Coe (Iowa), pitching 7.0 innings, allowing three runs (two earned) and three walks while striking out four. Hoffman went 2.0 innings, allowing three hits and two runs (both unearned).

The Kohawks finished with hits Friday. Konrardy and Goerdt, the top-two hitters in the line-up, went a combined 10-of-11 with six runs scored and four RBI.  Reuter, Hoffmann and Heckenberg each went 2-for-5 with two RBI.