La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team advanced to the championship game of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Regional with a 10-5 win over Bethel University (Minn.) Saturday afternoon at Copeland Park. The Eagles, ranked 13th on this week's D3baseball.com Top-25 Poll, improve to 33-9 and will play in the regional championship Sunday, May 21 at 11 a.m. 

Bethel (Minn.) drops 30-11 and faces Buena Vista University (Iowa) in an elimination game at 6 p.m. Saturday. The winner advances to Sunday's title game and must defeat UWL twice to capture the regional title. 

UWL's 33 wins rank fourth in single-season school history. The Eagles won a school record 39 games in 2016. UWL won 36 games in 2015 and 34 in 2012. 

UWL took a 3-0 in the top of the first Saturday. Chris VandenHeuvel walked to start the game and went to second after Jack Olver was hit-by-pitch. Anthony Vivian followed a three-run home run, his team record 17th of the season. He breaks Mac Born's single-season school record of 16 home run set in 2022.

The Eagles added to the lead in the top of the second. Jack Moran walked with one out, stole second and scored on Olver's two-out single to make it 4-0. 

Bethel (Minn.) stranded a pair of runners in the bottom of the third and fourth innings. UWL starter Tyler Schmitt walked a pair of runners in the third with one out, but recorded a fielder's choice and strikeout to end the inning. In the fourth, the Royals got a one-out and single, but Schmitt got a groundout and line out to end the inning. 

Bethel (Minn.) loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the fifth, but Caleb Matl came in relief to record a strikeout. 

UWL extended the advantage to 5-0 in the sixth. Tim Urlaub was hit-by-pitch with one out followed by a George Seaman walk. Jordan Williams delivered an RBI single to score Urlaub. Bethel (Minn.) got on the board in the bottom of the sixth on Ty Koehn's solo home run to cut the lead to 5-1. 

The Eagles tallied three runs in the eighth. Urlaub walked with one-out and advanced to second on Seaman's single. After Urlaub and Seaman each stole a base to get into scoring position, Williams hit a two-run single to score both runners to make it 7-1. Williams stole second and went to third on Jack Moran's bunt singe. Moran stole second and VandenHeuvel walked to load the bases. Olver's sacrifice fly scored Williams for an 8-1 lead. 

In the ninth, Urlaub singled and scored on Seaman's double to make it 9-1 and Williams followed with an RBI single for a 10-1 lead. 

Bethel (Minn.) scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth. ??? Winterfeldt had an RBI single to knock in Marcus Krupke followed by a Keenan Hodgkin double to score Brody Schneider and Winterfeldt. Koehn finished the scoring with an RBI single to score Hodgkin. 

Matl earned the win (4-0), going 3.2 innings, allowing three hits and one run while striking out three. Schmitt pitched 4.2 innings, allowing two hits and four walks with three strikeouts. Daniel Reischl got the final out of the game after allowing a single. 

UWL finished with 14 hits, including 10 from the bottom four in the line-up. Seaman and Williams each went 3-for-4 with Seaman finishing with two runs and an RBI while Williams added four RBI, two stolen bases and one run. Urlaub went 2-for-3 with three runs while Moran finished 2-for-4 with a run. Vivian went 2-for-4 with three RBI. 

Max Sutter (5-2) suffered the loss for Bethel (Minn.), pitching 7.1 innings, allowing nine hits, eight runs and four walks with two strikeouts. The Royals had 10 hits with Koehn going 4-for-5 with two RBI and one run. Hodgkin was 2-for-4 with two RBI and one run.