UW-Whitewater (28-13) opened up Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament play with a 4-2 win over UW-Stevens Point (27-14) Friday in La Crosse, Wisconsin.  The Warhawks advance in the double-elimination tournament to face UW-La Crosse Saturday at 10:00 am.  UW-Stevens Point will face UW-Oshkosh in an elimination game Friday at 4:00 pm. The winner of the WIAC tournament earns the conference's automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III tournament.

A Marty Herum (River Falls/River Falls) single in the bottom of the first scored Dylan Friend (Burlington/Burlington) and gave the Warhawks an early 1-0 lead.

The Pointers knotted the score in the top of the second on a run scoring double to right field by Jimmy Coady.

UW-W regained the lead in the bottom of the second.  Ryan Leavitt (Merrill/Merrill) led off the inning getting hit by a pitch.  Mike Mierow (Brookfield/Central) followed with a ground out that moved Leavitt up to second and another ground out by Steve Bartelin put Leavitt on third.  Then back-to-back walks by Brandon Egnarski (Watertown/Watertown) and David Cladis (Joliet, IL/Joliet Catholic) loaded the bases.  Cam Seidl was called for a balk moving all of the runners up one base and giving the Warhawks a 2-1 lead.

Bartlein hit his third homerun of the season, a solo shot to left center, to give UW-W a 3-1 cushion in the bottom of the fourth.

The Pointers had a chance to score a couple in the top of the seventh but Colin Grove (Beloit/Beloit Memorial) came on in relief of Eric Schmitz (Fond du Lac/Fond du Lac) with one out and runners on first and third and stymied their efforts.

An insurance run in the bottom of the eighth made it 4-1 in favor of the Warhawks.  With two outs Friend doubled to right center, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored on another wild pitch.

Stevens Point made a late push scoring one in the bottom of the ninth to make it 4-2 but Kyle Stewart (Onalaska/Onalaska) struckout the final two batters to preserve the win and earn the save.  Eric Schmitz (Fond du Lac/Fond du Lac) recorded the win to improve to 8-2 this season.

Dylan Friend (Burlington/Burlington) was the only Warhawk to record multiple hits going 2-for-4 and scoring two runs.  The teams combined for just ten hits in the game.  When these two teams met back on April 30 for a doubleheader, the teams combined for 32 hits in one game.  The Warhawks took 3 out of 4 from the Pointers during the regular season.

UW-La Crosse, UW-W's next opponent and top seed in the tournament, defeated UW-Oshkosh 10-8 in eight innings in the first game of tournament play.  The Eagles defeated UW-W in four games during the regular season.