May 1, 2019

Aldridge Approaches Record in No. 16 Warhawks' Split with Ripon

More news about: UW-Whitewater

Cal Aldridge (Crystal Lake, Ill./Prairie Ridge) belted his team-leading 13th homerun of the season, 46th of his career, in the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater baseball team's 7-3 game two victory over Ripon Wednesday afternoon in Whitewater. Aldridge is now one homerun shy of tying the career record of 47 set by Pat Tobiasz, 1995-1998. The Warhawks lost game one of the doubleheader 3-1.

UW-W, 26-9 overall and ranked 16th in the latest D3baseball.com Top 25 and the American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball Top 30, took a 1-0 lead in game two on a solo homer by Mike Aiello (Racine, Wis./Horlick) in the bottom of the second.

Ripon, 19-13 and winners of six of their last seven, tied the game in the top of the third and went ahead 3-1 in the top of the fourth.

Noah Jensen (Kenosha, Wis./Tremper) singled in Connor Moroder (Pewaukee, Wis./Pewaukee) in the bottom of the fourth to cut the Red Hawk lead to one before the big homer by Aldridge an inning later that gave the Warhawks a 5-3 lead.

The Warhawks added a pair of insurance runs in the eighth to make it 7-3 before Connor Fedders(Franksville, Wis./Union Grove) came on to close things out.

Riley Gruetzmacher (Oconto Falls, Wis./Oconto Falls) started the game and struckout three in four innings before giving way to Connor Spear (Highland, Ind./Mount Carmel (Ill.)) who earned the win after giving up no runs on two hits in four innings. Spear is now 6-0 this season.

Moroder scored the only run for the Warhawks in game one as Ripon notched 14 hits and three runs to defeat UW-W for just the fifth time in program history.

Noah Jensen (Kenosha, Wis./Tremper) had a solid day at the plate combining to go 4-for-8 with one run scored and one RBI in the doubleheader.

The Warhawks will host five more games this weekend to conclude regular season play. First up are a pair of doubleheaders with UW-Stevens Point on Friday and Saturday and then a single game against Concordia (Wis.) on Sunday. Friday's doubleheader is slated to begin at 1 p.m., while Saturday is scheduled for a noon start.