The UW-Whitewater baseball team split with St. Olaf College on Saturday in Leesburg, Florida. St. Olaf took the first game 3-2, while UW-W won the second 7-2. UW-Whitewater is now 3-1 this season while St. Olaf falls to 7-1.

 

In game one the Oles struck first in the bottom of the first scoring one run. UW-Whitewater took some time but tied things up in the top of the fourth when Matt Beyer (Janesville/Parker) scored on a Jeff Donovan (Wauwautosa/East) double to left field.

 

St. Olaf recaptured the lead in the bottom of the fourth scoring on a UW-W error. UW-W fought back to tie the score again in the top of the sixth when a sacrifice fly by Andrew Eichstaedt (Appleton/North) scored Beyer.

 

A scoreless bottom half of the sixth for the Oles, and a top half of the seventh for UW-W kept the score tied going into the bottom of the seventh when St. Olaf's shortstop hit a walk-off single (both of the games in the doubleheader were slated to be just seven innings) to win the game.

 

Riley Tincher (Oregon/Oregon) pitched six innings and took the loss for the Warhawks. Tincher is 1-1 for the season.

 

Daniel Putnam (Ashland /Ashland) went 2-for-4 in the game and was the only Warhawk to record multiple hits.

 

Game two proved to be much more productive for UW-W at the plate, which translated into their third win of the season.

 

The Warhawks took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on an RBI double by Rob Coe (Appleton/North) that scored Putnam who reached earlier in the inning on an error.

 

The game remained at 1-0 for the next three and a half innings before UW-W notched six runs in the bottom of the fifth to extend their lead to 7-0. The 'Hawks first three batters, Lee Kimbell (Clinton, KY), Travis Wessels (Tomah/Tomah), and Daniel Putnam (Ashland /Ashland), reached base and all would come around to score. Coe and Donovan each reached base in the inning, recorded an RBI, and scored. Eichstaedt also scored in the inning.

 

St. Olaf plated a run in the top of the sixth and the top of the seventh to close the gap to 7-2 but could not solve UW-W's Donovan.  Donovan surrendered just five hits in the game while striking out six.  Donovan improves to 2-0 this season.

 

Putnam went 1-for-4 in the game and is batting .733 after four games (11-for-15). Putnam has recorded multiple hits in three of the Warhawks' four games.

 

Coe added to his RBI total for the season and now has 10 to lead the team in the early going of 2011. He went 3-for-3 in game two, scored a run, and knocked in 2.

 

UW-W will continue competition on their spring trip in Florida on Sunday when they take on St. Thomas in a doubleheader beginning at 11:30 am.