La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team earned a doubleheder sweep of UW-Stout Sunday afternoon at Copeland Park.  The Eagles won the opener, 11-1 in eight innings, and the nightcap, 12-4.  UW-L improves to 18-8 overall and 10-5 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while UW-Stout drops to 14-13 overall and 2-10 in the conference.  The Eagles now lead the all-time series, 121-82, with UW-Stout.

In the opener, Ben Cejka (4-1) earned the complete-game victory.  He went 8.0 innings, allowing eight hits and one unearned run with two walks and five strikeout.  Cejka moved into seventh-place in career strikeouts at UW-L with 159.  Tom Klawitter (1977-80) is the all-time leader with 185.

The Eagles struck first with an unearned run in the bottom of the first inning as Taylor Kohlwey scored on Bryce Barsness' suicide squeeze.  UW-L added to its lead in the bottom of the fourth on Kohlwey's two-out two-run triple scoring Joel Zyhowski and Alex Cordova for a 3-0 advantage.

UW-Stout cut the lead to 3-1 in the top of the eighth inning with an unearned run off Cejka.  Nick Nalbach reached on a UW-L throwing error and scored on a two-out Hunter Dicus double.  The Eagles responded with eight runs on five hits and one Blue Devils' error in the bottom of the eighth to earn the victory by the 10-run rule.  A total of 11 batters came to the plate in the inning.  Cordova's RBI double knocked in Travis Buxton-Verstegen to make it 4-1.  Barsness was hit-by-pitch with the bases-loaed to score Cordova.  After a UW-Stout pitching change, Nic Barnes singled to score Kohlwey for a 6-1 advantage.  Ben Morgan's three-run double knocked in Justin Anderson, Barsness and Barnes while Buxton-Verstgen's RBI double scored Morgan.  Buxton-Verstgen scored the final run of the game, and his second of the inning, on a UW-Stout throwing error.

Eight starters had a hit for UW-L as the team finished with 11 overall.  Barnes, Morgan and Buxton-Verstegen eache had two hits for the Eagles with Morgan finishing with three RBI and Buxton-Verstegen two runs.  Kohlwey and Barsness each had two RBI.

Hayden Bowe (3-3) suffered the loss for UW-Stout, pitching 7.2 innings, allowing seven hits, five runs and four walks with two strikeouts. Dicus and Ryan Conner each had two hits for the Blue Devils.

In the nightcap, UW-Stout took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning as Conner's RBI groundout scored Charlie Meyer with an unearned run.  UW-L tied the game in the bottom of the third on Morgan's single knocking in Alex Brown. 

The Blue Devils came right back in the top of the fourth to take a 2-1 lead with another unearned run as Meyer scored on a throwing error, but the Eagles responded with four runs in the bottom of the fourth to lead 5-2.   Cordova's single through the left side scored Carter Hoffman to tie the game at 2-2 and Kohlwey followed with a three-run home run scoring Cordova and Brown.

UW-Stout cut its deficit to 5-3 in the top of the fifth as Sam Arnott scored on Nalbach's sacrifice fly.  UW-L increased its lead to 6-3 in the bottom of the frame on Zyhowski's RBI single knocking in Barnes.  The Blue Devils cut the margin back to two at 6-4 in the sixth as Connor walked with one out and scored on Jake Johnson's double, but the Eagles scored two runs in each of the next three innings to earn the victory.  Kohlwey and Morgan had run-scoring singles in the bottom of the sixth to make it 8-4 while Eric Vatch hit an RBI double and Brown and RBI groundout in the seventh. Barnes added an RBI double and Buxton-Verstegen a run-scoring single in the eighth.

Jameson Lavery (1-1) earned the win for UW-L, pitching 6.0 innings, allowing seven hits, four runs (two earned) and four walks while striking out three.

The Eagles finished with 19 hits in the nightcap as every starter recorded at least one.  Seven players had multi-hit games for UW-L, including Brown who went 3-for-4 with three runs scored and an RBI.  Cordova, Kohlwey, Morgan, Barnes, Buxton-Verstegen and Zyhowski each had two hits.  Kohlwey finished with four RBI and two runs while Morgan added two RBI.  Barnes scored twice.

Patrick Gullickson (1-1) took the loss for UW-Stout, going 5.0 innings, allowing 11 hits, six runs and one walk with one strikeout.  Jack Schneider, Meyer, Dicus and Arnott each had two hits for the Blue Devils with Meyer scoring twice.

UW-L returns to action Tuesday, April 21 at UW-Platteville for a conference doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.