Led by five RBIs from Mikole Pierce (DePere/DePere), the UW-Whitewater baseball team topped UW-La Crosse 13-3 in the NCAA DIII Midwest Regional Thursday in Whitewater.  UW-W, 38-7, used a combination of early offense and solid pitching to pull away from the Eagles and remain unbeaten in the regional.  The regional uses a double-elimination format, and with their losses Wednesday and Thursday UW-L, 26-18, has been eliminated.  The Warhawks advance to play at noon Friday.

UW-W, the visitor on the scoreboard, started things off with three consecutive singles to take a 1-0 lead.  After an out, Casey Power (Ontario, Canada/Belle River) added another single to make it 2-0, and Trey Cannon (Palatine, IL/Palatine) followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Warhawks a 3-0 lead after one half inning of play.

An error allowed UW-W to extend their lead to 4-0 in the top of the second, and before the inning could end the Warhawks tacked on two more for a 6-0 lead.

The Eagles notched two in the second but UW-W stretched their lead to 10-2 in the top of the third.  The first three batters singled to load the bases.  After a pitching change Dylan Bersch (Pulaski/Pulaski) was hit by a pitch to push a run across the plate to make it 7-2.  Sacrifice flies by Nick Kuhlmann (Minneapolis, MN/Minneapolis Southwest) and Mikole Pierce (DePere/DePere) made it 9-2, and Michael Gonzalez (Delavan/Delavan-Darien) drove in the final run of the inning on a single to make it 10-2.

Dylan Friend (Burlington/Burlington) singled in another run in the fifth but the Eagles responded with one in their half of the frame to make it 11-3 after five.

Pierce went to work again in the seventh tripling for the seventh time this season to push two across and make it 13-3, the final score.  Pierce was 2-for-4 in the game with one run and five RBIs.  Dylan Friend (Burlington/Burlington) was a perfect 2-for-2 scoring three runs, drawing three walks and knocking in one.  Mike Mierow (Brookfield/Central) led all hitters with three hits in the game.

On the mound Scott Plaza (Arlington Heights, IL/Prospect) scattered ten hits and three runs across six innings to earn the win to improve to 7-2 this season.  He added five strikeouts to move his season total to 71.  Connor Hurst (Waunakee/Waunakee) and Austin Jones (Wauwatosa/Wauwatosa West) combined to pitch the final two innings and allowed just one hit.

The Warhawks will play at noon on Friday against the winner of Thursday's 6 pm game between Concordia Chicago and Adrian.