It took the first extra inning game of the year, but ninth-ranked UW-Whitewater defeated UW-Platteville twice Wednesday at Prucha Field at Jim Miller Stadium in Whitewater, winning 12-2 in seven innings in game one and pulling out a 7-6 ten inning win in game two to give the Warhawks a sweep of the four game season series with the Pioneers. 

game one
Platteville grabbed the lead right after the national anthem, scoring twice in the top of the first.  The Pioneers only had one hit in the inning, and that runner didn't figure in the scoring.  A walk and two Warhawk errors made both runs unearned as Warhawk starter Riley Tincher gave up just one more hit, another single, in his five innings of work.

Whitewater got half of that back in their first at bat.  Daniel Putnam led off with a walk, moved to third on an Andrew Eichstaedt single, and came home on Rob Coe's single, the first of Coe's four hits in the game.

UW-W didn't take long to take control of the game, plating four runs in the second.  Singles by Eichstaedt, Coe and Jeff Donovan delivered runs, and the Pioneers allowed one on an error to give Whitewater a 5-2 lead.

Freshman centerfielder Dylan Friend cleared the bases with a double in the fourth to make it 8-2 Whitewater.  Donovan's sacrifice fly in the fifth upped it to 9-2, and Putnam's sixth inning infield single put UW-W in front 10-2.

Pinchhitter Logan Peot doubled to right center to bring in run number 11, and the game ended with the WIAC's run discrepancy rule on a pinch hit single off the bat of Nathan Boltz.

Tincher improved to 6-2, allowing two walks and striking out three.  Justin Lambert racked up two innings of hitless relief.  Grant Oldenburg, 0-1, went three innings and took the loss for UW-P.  Coe went 4x5 with two runs scored and two batted in, his team-leading eleventh multi-RBI game.  Putnam went 2x3 to extend his streak to eleven games, and Eichstaedt, Donovan and Friend contributed two hits each. 

game two
In the nightcap, truly at night taking advantage of the new lights at Whitewater's field, it was the Warhawks who got on the board first.  With two outs in the bottom of the first Coe stayed hot, singling to center.  Donovan singled him to third and Coe came home on a Pioneer error.

In the next at bat, Platteville tied the game.  Aaron Hopson led off with a double, moved ninety feet with a sacrifice bunt and scored on a ground ball out.

Putnam pushed his hitting streak to twelve games, leading off the third with a single, then moved to second on a passed ball.  Pioneer freshman lefty Tyler Nelson suffered some control problems, walking Eichstaedt and hitting Coe to load the bases.  Nelson then walked Samuel Keller Jr. to force in one run, and Jared Fon drove in another with a sacrifice fly to put Whitewater in front 3-1.

In the bottom of the fourth Eichstaedt doubled in a run and Coe (again) made it 5-1 with a single.

But the Warhawks wheels, if they didn't come off, wobbled more than a little in the top of the fifth.  Tyler Jacobson singled and Jesse Wiley doubled to start the inning.  Donovan, Whitewater's starter in game two, then hit Cody Luther to load the bases.  With one out, Levi Ney singled to center field to score two runs, and when the throw came to the plate to try, unsuccessfully, to deny the second run Whitewater's catcher attempted to throw out Ney at second, but the throw eluded the infielder at the base and the UW-W center fielder backing up the play, scoring the third run on the play. Ney ended up at third, where he scored the fourth run of the inning on a sacrifice fly. The game was knotted 5-5.

And that's when Nelson, with some relief help, and Donovan drew their lines in the sand.  The game remained 5-5 through eight innings. 

Platteville broke the string of zeros with a RBI double by Ney in the ninth.  UW-W stayed alive with Putnam stroking a single and stealing second.  With two outs, Platteville elected to intentionally walk Donovan, UW-W's cleanup hitter.  The strategy backfired when Brent Young came through with a two out single to tie the game and send it into extra innings, Whitewater's first game longer than nine innings this year.

In the bottom of the tenth Matt Beyer singled with one out and stole second.  With two outs Putnam, who had four hits on the day, was intentionally walked.   With Eichstaedt at the plate he appeared to twist his knee fouling off a pitch.  The next pitch he grounded back to the pitcher, who threw wide of first base with Beyer scoring from second with the winning run.

Matthew Roberts, 2-1, picked up the win with his tenth inning work in relief of Donovan, whose nine innings was just the third time this season a UW-W pitcher went that long.  Putnam, Coe and Donovan led UW-W with two hit games.  Bill Oppriecht, 2-5, pitched the last two and two-thirds innings and took the loss.  Brett Benesh, Jacobson and Ney had two hits apiece for UW-P. 

UW-W defeated Platteville in both games of a doubleheader in Whitewater April 13, winning 5-1 and 8-2. 

UW-Whitewater is 23-5 overall and 13-3 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.  Platteville is 8-23 on the season and 6-14 in league play.

UW-Whitewater will travel to Oshkosh to battle the Titans, and Wisconsin's weather, in doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday.  The Warhawks have added a doubleheader for Tuesday, May 3 at 1:00 with tenth ranked College of Saint Scholastica visiting Prucha Field at Jim Miller Stadium on the north end of the UW-W campus.  Free parking is adjacent to the field.

For additional information:  John Vodenlich, UW-W coach, 262-472-1420