La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team advanced to the championship game of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tournament Saturday afternoon at North Campus Field with a 13-3 victory over UW-Whitewater.  The Eagles, the tournament's top-seed, will play second-seeded UW-Whitewater or fourth-seeded UW-Oshkosh in the title game Saturday at 4 p.m.  UW-L improved to 32-9 on the season with Saturday's win over UW-Whitewater.

UW-La Crosse is ranked 12th on the American Baseball Coaches Assocation (ABCA) Poll and 16th on D3baseball.com while UW-Whitewater is 28t hon the ABCA Poll.

The Warhawks took a 3-0 lead after three innings, scoring two unearned runs. Marty Herum had a sacrifice fly in the first inning scoring Dylan Friend who reached on a error.  David Cladis gave UW-Whitewater a 2-0 lead in the second inning with an RBI single and Mike Mierow made it 3-0 in the third with a run-scoring single to score Herum who reached on an error.

UW-L tied the game in the fourth. Cole Cefalu singled and Brooks Braga walked to lead off the inning.  Adam Cordova then hit a three-run home run to left center field to tie the game.

The Eagles tallied six runs with two outs in the fifth to take the lead.  Cefalu singled and moved to second on a balk.  Braga walked and Cordova was hit by pitch.  Jay Fanta then hit a grand slam down the left field line to give UW-L a 7-3 advantage.  Brett Jacobson followed with a double and Zach Harazin walked before Jake Paulson had a pinch-hit RBI single to score Jacobson and make it 8-3.  Garrett Novinski followed with an RBI single to knock in Harazin for a 9-3 lead.

UW-L added two unearned runs in the eighth as Cefalu and Braga scored on a pair of UW-Whitewater errors on Cordova's ground ball.  Connor Krohn had an RBI single and Novkinski an RBI double in the ninth to finish the scoring.  

Garrett Scray (6-3) earned the complete-game win for UW-L, going 9.0 innings, allowing five hits and three runs (one earned) with seven strikeouts.  He did not allow a hit after the third inning.

Cefalu and Fanta both finished 2-for-4 whle Novinski was 2-for-5.  Cefalu scored three runs while Fanta scored once and had four RBI and Novinski had two RBI.  Braga scored three times while Cordova finished with two runs and three RBI.

Quintin Zander (1-2) took the loss for the Warhawks, going 1.2 innings, allowing two hits, three runs and two walks with one strikeout.

Five different players had a hit for UW-Whitewater.

UW-L will play in the tournament championship game Saturday at 4 p.m. versus UW-Oshkosh or UW-Whitewater.