La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team defeated The College of St. Scholastica (Minn.) 10-3 in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Baseball Midwest Regional Wednesday night at Copeland Park.  The Eagles improve to 29-12 on the season while the Saints drop to 32-12.  UW-L advances to play Washington University (Mo.) Thursday, May 14 at 7:45 p.m.  St. Scholastica (Minn.) will play Concordia University-Chicago (Ill.) Thursday, March 14 at 1:15 p.m. in an elimination game.    

St. Scholastica (Minn.) scored in the top of the first off UW-L starter Joe Miller.  Al Marolt was hit-by-pitch with one out and later scored on consecutive singles by Trevor Bernsdorf and Tyler Duex for a 1-0 lead.  Miller walked Steven Neutzling to load the bases, but got out of the inning after Brian Minks grounded into a double play. 

UW-L scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the third on only one hit to take a 2-1 lead.  Justin Anderson was hit-by-pitch by Saints' starter Padriac Getchell and advanced to second on Ben Morgan's single.  Bryce Barsness followed with a sacrifice bunt and Getchell threw over third baseman Brian Mink in an attempt to get Anderson on the play, who scored on the throwing error.  Morgan advanced to third and Barsness to second on the play.  Shane Adler's RBI groundout scored Morgan to give the Eagles the lead.

Morgan hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth to give UW-L a 3-1 lead and Barsness later scored in the inning on a Travis Buxton-Verstegen single make it 4-1.

Duex singled to open the top of the sixth for the Saints and later scored on a RBI single by Shayne Ciernia to cut the lead to 4-2.  St. Scholastica (Minn.) made it a one-run game in the top of the eighth.  Duex singled with one out, but had to leave the game with an injury after diving back to first on a pickoff attempt.  Duex was replaced by pinch-runner Seth Anderson who advanced to second on a UW-L throwing error.  Ciernia singled through the left side to knock in Anderson to make it 4-3.  UW-L's Caleb Boushley struck out Jake Kuschke to end the threat.

UW-L answered back in the bottom of the eighth with six runs, all coming with two outs.  Eric Vatch walked and was followed by a Alex Cordova single.  Taylor Kohlwey was hit-by-pitch to load the bases and Anderson singled through the left side to drive in Vatch and Cordova for a 6-3 lead. Kohlwey scored on a Morgan single to make it 7-3.  Pinch-runner Alex Brown and Morgan scored on a Barsness double, who later finished the scoring coming in on an Adler single.

Miller (8-2) earned the win for UW-L, pitching 6.0 innings, allowing six hits, two runs and three walks with three strikeouts.  Boushley went 2.0 innings, allowing two hits and one run while striking out two.  Jameson Lavery pitched the final inning, allowing one hit with one strikeout.

Seven starters had at least one hit for the Eagles as Morgan went 3-for-5 with a home run, two RBI, and three runs scored.  Barsness finished 2-for-3 with two RBI, one run, one stolen base, and a walk.  Anderson added two RBI for the Eagles. 

Getchell (6-3) took the loss for St. Scholastica (Minn.), allowing five hits, four runs (three earned) and four walks with five strikeouts.

Duex went 3-for-4 for the Saints with one run and one RBI.  Ciernia finished 2-for-4 with two RBI while Austin Colvard went 2-for-5.