Whitewater, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team completed a four-game series sweep with a pair of wins at UW-Whitewater Sunday afternoon at Prucha Field at Jim Miller Stadium. The Eagles, ranked 25th on this week's D3baseball.com Top-25 Poll, took the opener, 8-2, and the nightcap, 6-5. UWL improves to 22-6 overall and 13-3 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC). UW-Whitewater, 19th on D3baseball.com, falls to 17-11 overall and 7-9 in the conference.
UWL earned a pair of victories on Saturday, winning 6-4 and 8-2. It marks the second four-game series sweep for UWL over UW-Whitewater in school history. The Eagles won all four games in La Crosse on April 21-22, 2012.
In Sunday's opener, Tyler Schmitt (4-1) earned the victory. He went 7.0 innings, allowing five hits, two run and three walks while striking out five.
Each team scored a run in the first inning. Ty Hamilton's RBI single scored Jack Moran for UWL in the top of the inning. Moran led-off the game with a single and went to third on Mac Born's single. UW-Whitewater tied it in the bottom of the inning after Jacob DeMeyer walked with one out and scored on a Donovan Brandl double. The Warhawks took a 2-1 lead in hte bottom of the first, but the Eagles responded with three runs in the top of the third to take a 4-2 lead. Hamilton's double scored Jack Olver and Anthony Vivian to give UWL a 3-2 lead. Born later scored on Tim Urlaub's groundout for a 4-2 lead.
UWL extended its lead in the fourth with a pair of runs as Olver doubled with one out and scored on Vivian's two-run home run. The Eagles added single tallies in the seventh and ninth innings. Eli Roberts hit a solo home run in the seventh and scored on a wild pitch in the ninth.
UWL finished with 14 hits in the opener with Born going 4-for-5 with a run scored. Moran, Olver, Hamilton and Roberts each had two hits with Hamilton finishing with three RBI. Olver, Roberts and Vivian each scored twice. Vivian had two RBI.
Brandt (3-1) suffered the loss for UW-Whitewater, pitching 3.1 innings, allowing eight hits, six runs and three walks with two strikeouts. The Warhawks five hits with Brandl going 2-for-4 with an RBI.
UWL held on for the sweep in the nightcap after UW-Whitewater scored four times in the bottom of the ninth. The game was scoreless until the sixth with the Eagles took a 3-0 lead. Jordan Williams scored the game's first run on a failed pick-off attempt while Olver followed with an RBI single and Moran an RBI double to make it 3-0. UW-Whitewater cut it to 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth on Matt Korman's sacrifice fly.
In the eighth, Williams came in on Olver's single to give UWL a 4-1 lead and Vivian later delivered an RBI single to score Olver. George Seaman's double in the top of the ninth scored Roberts for a 6-1 lead.
UW-Whitewater rallied with four runs in the bottom of the ninth. David Rubin's two-out single scored Adam Cootway and Pease to cut the lead to 6-3. O'Brien's RBI double knocked in Rubin to make it 6-4. After a walk, O'Brien came in on a UWL error to make it a one-run game. Caleb Matl came in relief and retired Sam Paden on a line out to center field for the final out.
Owen Deprez (3-2) earned the victory for UWL, going 6.0 innings, allowing four hits, one run and two walks while striking out four. Matl only threw one pitch in picking up his fifth save of the season.
The Eagles totaled 12 hits with Olver, Born, Vivian and Williams each finishing with two. Olver and Williams each scored twice while Olver had two RBI.
Joey Pettit (2-3) took the loss, pitching 7.1 innings, allowing 10 hits, five runs (four earned) and one walk with seven strikeouts. UW-Whitewater totaled eight hits in the nightcap as Matt Scolan went 2-for-4 with one run. Rubin had two RBI.
UWL returns to action Saturday, April 29 at UW-Oshkosh at noon.