By Joe Sager
D3sports.com
EASTLAKE, Ohio - From top to bottom, UW-Whitewater believes its lineup is solid.
So far at the D-III World Series, the Warhawks have proven it.
The squad collected 18 hits and scored in double digits Sunday to upend Denison, 11-4, at Classic Park.
“I think we have nine guys in the lineup that help this team win,” UWW head coach John Vodenlich said. “Some days, it might be (Adam) Cootway; some days it might be (Danny) Hopper. Obviously, it’d be great if all nine were firing at the same time. That’s what we’re trying to do. I feel they are very capable and I love how they compete.”
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Cootway and Hopper both swatted four hits in the win, but the rest of the lineup contributed, too.
“It’s fun to see guys at the bottom of the order compete for us and start something for us, or for us at the top of the order to start something for the bottom of the order to finish,” Cootway said. “It’s contagious, for sure. You could see that yesterday and today.”
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| Adam Cootway stayed hot at the plate with four hits against Denison to get UW-Whitewater into the bracket championship game without a loss. Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com | More photos from this game |
UWW (46-6) grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. After an out, Matt Scolan drew a walk. Cootway grounded to short, but the throw to second sailed wide, which allowed Scolan to scamper to third. He scored on an Andy Thies groundout.
Cootway made it a 2-0 game with a blistering solo homer to left in the top of the third. It was his 20th blast of the season, which set a program record.
Thies followed with a ground-rule double to right and Eli Frank drew a walk. Hopper delivered a three-run bomb to left for a 5-0 advantage.
“We knew, going into the game, that Whitewater is a really good team. They came out and put a lot of pressure on us early. They kind of had us on our heels all night,” Denison head coach Mike Deegan said. “I thought we responded really well and got ourselves in some good situations and did a lot of good things, it was just a little too much for us. We just kept battling, but couldn’t get a break.”
Eron Vega got Denison (41-6) on the scoreboard with a solo homer to left center in the bottom of the third.
The Warhawks answered in the top of the fourth. Darryl Jackson led off with a single and Dominik McVay followed with a double. Aaron Holland lofted a sacrifice fly deep to right to plate Jackson for the 6-1 advantage.
McVay, who went to third on the fly, scored on Cootway’s single to left for a 7-1 lead. Thies loaded the bases on an infield single. The Big Red ended the inning when Frank grounded into a double play.
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Denison’s Cade Nowik opened the bottom of the fifth with a solo homer to right.
UWW responded in the top of the sixth. McVay was hit by a pitch. He ran home on Scolan’s double to the fence for an 8-2 advantage.
The Warhawks added to their lead in the top of the seventh. Hopper blistered a double to left. Sam Paden singled to right. Jackson singled in Hopper for a 9-2 lead. McVay singled to left to load the bases. Aaron Holland lofted a sacrifice fly to deep right to make it 10-2. Scolan singled to left to bring in Jackson to boost the edge to 11-2.
Denison cut into the lead in the bottom of the seventh. Max Fishbein doubled. He scored on Vaga’s single to right to trim the deficit to 11-3.
The Big Red got a run in the ninth when Eric Colaco singled in Jack Lutte, who had doubled.
Logan Eisenbarth got the pitching win. He scattered seven hits and struck out one in 6.2 innings of action.
“They have a great offense and we do, too,” he said. “I was just trying to limit their runs and let our offense go after as many runs as they could.”
The Warhawks return to action Monday at 1:15 p.m.
“I thought it was a great game for us. I thought we played well,” Vodenlich said. “As always, it starts on the hill and I thought Logan gave us a tremendous outing. We did the things we needed to do to win the game.”
Because of a rain-adjusted schedule. Denison returns to play Rowan on Sunday at 8:15 p.m..
“Getting rained out kind of shifted things around and makes it a little bit tougher. But, our group is resilient,” Deegan said. “We’ll take 10 or 15 minutes to feel sorry for ourselves and once that water hits your body and you get a good shower, we’ll be ready to go in a few hours.”