UW-Whitewater had to come from behind to win in both games of a doubleheader against UW-Platteville Wednesday at James B. Miller Stadium in Whitewater.  The Warhawks won game one 8-5, and game two 4-3, to improve to 11-3 overall and 2-0 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.  The Pioneers fall to 5-11 and 0-2.

In game one UW-Platteville vaulted out to a 5-0 lead after the first inning.  The Pioneers led off the game with a triple and scored on a ground out in the next at bat.  With two outs, the Pioneers loaded the bases and senior third baseman Jon Lewerke hit a bases clearing triple to left center.  Lewerke came around to score Platteville's fifth and final run when the next batter singled up the middle.  UW-Whitewater removed starting pitcher Tom Kerndt (Lansing, IA/Lansing) in favor of Scott Plaza (Arlington Heights, IL/Prospect) who got the next hitter out to end the inning.

That was it.  No more for Platteville.  Plaza shutout the Pioneers for the remainder of the game facing four batters over the minimum, scattering five hits, one walk and one strikeout to earn his second win of the season.  As for run support, it took a while, but he got it.

Marty Herum (River Falls/River Falls) hit a two RBI single up the middle to plate Dylan Friend (Burlington/Burlington) and David Cladis (Joliet, IL/Joliet Catholic) in the bottom of the third for UW-W's first two runs of the game.  Two innings later the Warhawks used three doubles to plate two more and inch closer at 5-4.

Cladis led off the seventh with a double, and after a line out and a groundout he came around to score on a Jared Fon (Germantown/Germantown) double, his second of the game.  Fon moved up a base after a between pitches error by the Pioneer infield and scored the go ahead run when the next batter, Herum, tripled to right.

Two insurance runs in the eighth made it 8-6 and Plaza did the rest.

The Warhawks had eleven hits in the game; seven of them were extra-base hits.  Fon and Cladis collected two doubles each while Mikole Pierce (DePere/DePere) and Michael Gonzalez (Delavan/Delavan-Darien) each had one.  Herum accounted for the other extra-base hit with his triple.

Continuing the trend of scoring two per inning in game one, the Warhawks tallied two runs in the bottom of the first in the second game to take a 2-0 lead.  Friend and Fon hit back-to-back singles with one out and both moved up a base after a wild pitch.  After a strikeout, Pierce singled to left field to plate both runners.

The Pioneers threatened in the top of the fifth with the bases loaded and one out, but starting pitcher Justin Lambert (Mt. Horeb/Mt. Horeb) got senior catcher Bobby Patton to ground out into an inning ending 6-4-3 double play.

With runners on second and third and no outs in the bottom of the seventh, the Warhawks were looking to add some insurance runs.  After a line out and a groundout the Pioneers chose to intentionally walk Herum to set up a force at any base.  Pierce came up next, with the bases loaded, and grounded out to end the threat and the inning.

Stranding the runners in the seventh proved to be costly as the Pioneers rallied to score three in the top of the eighth.  The inning started with a double followed by three walks and a single to make it 2-2.  The Warhawks finally recorded an out but the bases were still loaded and another walk pushed the Pioneers' third run across the plate.

Turns out the Warhawks have a knack for coming from behind because they did it again.  Sam Keller Jr. (Milwaukee/Riverside) hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded to score the game tying run in the bottom of the eighth.  In the bottom of the ninth Mike Mierow (Brookfield/Central) was the hero, hitting a single to right with the bases loaded for the game winning run.

Quintin Zander (Black Earth/Wisconsin Heights) came on in relief to earn his first win of the season.  Zander pitched an inning and two-thirds and gave up just one hit while striking out three.

Fon and Steve Bartlein (South Milwaukee/South Milwaukee) each collected five hits in the doubleheader.  Fon added two RBIs and a run.  Herum went 4-for-8 on the day with 3 RBIs.

UW-W will host a single game Friday against UW-Superior at Miller Stadium beginning at 6 pm.  The Warhawks and Yellowjackets will play another single game Saturday at 4 pm.