The fourth ranked UW-Whitewater baseball team came through with clutch performances in the late innings of two wins over fifth ranked UW-Stevens Point Thursday at Prucha Field at James B. Miller Stadium in Whitewater.  UW-W won game one 7-4 scoring three unanswered runs in the seventh, and stormed back from a 4-0 deficit in game two to win 5-4 in 13 innings.  With the wins the Warhawks grab a commanding lead of first place in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a record of 8-1; their overall record stands at 20-3.  UW-Stevens Point falls to 17-6 overall and 5-5 in league play.

Point took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third of game one, but UW-W answered with three in the bottom of the frame.  Kyle Haen (Madison/Edgewood) hit a two-run triple and later came in to score on a ground out by Jared Fon (Germantown/Germantown).  Mikole Pierce (DePere/DePere) led off the fourth with a double and made it 4-1 when Gonzalez singled in the next at bat.

UW-SP tied the ball game in the top of the fifth with the aid of an error.

After a scoreless sixth for both teams UW-W notched three in the seventh to jump ahead 7-4.  Haen scored the first run on a passed ball, Fon scored the second on a balk, and Dylan Friend (Burlington/Burlington) scored the third on a ground out.

After giving up three runs in the fifth UW-W lefty Connor Hurst (Waunakee/Waunakee) took control and only allowed one more hit the rest of the way.  He pitched his first complete game of the season giving up four runs, three earned, on eight hits while striking out seven and walking none.  Hurst improves to 4-1 this season with a 1.41 ERA.

Game two had it all.  Timely hitting, solid pitching, and of course, extra innings.  Last season on April 14 these two teams went 19 innings before they could decide a winner.  Thursday only took 13.

The Pointers scored first on a solo homerun by centerfielder Jimmy Coady.  They added three in the top of the fifth to make it 4-0, and pitcher Cam Seidl kept the Warhawk bats quiet through the first seven innings.

Jared Fon (Germantown/Germantown) led off the eighth with a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch.  Friend followed with a homer over the right field wall and the Warhawks cut the lead in half, 4-2.  After a fly out, Gonzalez doubled down the right field line.  Seidl struck out the next batter but Trey Cannon (Palatine, IL/Palatine) followed with an RBI single to center to make it 4-3.

On to the ninth.  The Pointers drew a walk to lead off the inning and advanced the runner with a sacrifice bunt.  Head Coach John Vodenlich elected to walk the next batter, coincidentally UW-SP's best hitter, to set up the double play.  After a pitching change the strategy paid off.  Austin Jones (Wauwatosa/Wauwatosa West) got Pointer shortstop Riley Spetz to roll into a 4-6-3 double play to end the threat.

Trailing one in the bottom of the ninth Fon again drew a leadoff walk.  He stole second and two batters later advanced to third on a fielder's choice.  On the same play the Pointers threw it away and Fon scored on the error to tie the game at four.

For the next three innings and ahalf innings no baserunner advanced past second.

In the bottom of the 13th freshman Steve Chamberlain (Rockford, IL/Guilford) came in as a pinch hitter to leadoff the inning.  In his three plate appearances this season he had not tallied a hit ... then he tripled to right field and the game-winning run was 90 feet away.  Two batters later Adam Gregory (Edgerton/Edgerton) singled to right to plate Chamberlain and win the game for UW-W.

Rewind to the fifth inning when the Pointers scored three runs to go up 4-0.  From that point until the top of the 13th, the Pointers were held hitless.  The combination of Curtis Morgan (Green Lake/Green Lake), Justin Mortensen (Hartland/Arrowhead), and Austin Jones (Wauwatosa/Wauwatosa West) threw no-hit baseball for seven innings to get the Warhawks in a position to win.  Colin Grove (Beloit/Memorial) may have earned the win, but the entire pitching staff had a hand in it.

UW-W totaled 19 hits in the two games and no one had more than three.  The Warhawks got contributions from the top of the lineup to the bottom.

The Warhawks and Pointers will go at it again on Friday in Whitewater beginning at noon.