WHITEWATER, Wis. – The third-seeded UW-Stevens Point baseball team overcame an early 5-0 deficit to win its 11th Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) tournament title by defeating top-seeded UW-Whitewater 15-7 on Sunday afternoon at Prucha Field at Miller Stadium.
 
Box Score
 
UW-Whitewater (33-9) led UW-Stevens Point (31-12) 5-0 after four innings but the Pointers scored multiple runs in each of the final five innings. The victory gives UWSP 11 conference tournament titles in the tournament's 18 seasons and an automatic berth into the NCAA regionals this coming week.
 
The Pointers will learn where they will head for the regionals, which begin on Wednesday, May 13, at midnight ET on Sunday evening. UW-Stevens Point will make its 10th appearance in the regionals in the last 11 seasons.
 
UW-Stevens Point scored five runs in the top of the fifth to erase the 5-0 deficit. After the first to batters were retired, seven UWSP batters in a row reached safely as the Pointers chased starter John Olejniczak.
 
The Pointers got on the board on a bases-loaded walk to Bobby Gregorich (Plover, WI/SPASH) before Jimmy Coady (La Crosse, WI/Aquinas) delivered a clutch bases-clearing, three-run double down the left-field line to make it 5-4. The next batter was Taylor Carlson (Madison, WI/La Follette) and the senior tied the game with a RBI single to right center.
 
UW-Whitewater came right back with two runs in the bottom of the inning, scoring on two-out hits by Nick Kuhlmann and Trey Cannon. The Pointers tied the game for the second time in the top of the sixth, tying the game on a two-out RBI single by Gregorich down the right-field line.
 
UW-Stevens Point broke the 7-7 tie in the seventh when Mitch Beau (Fond du Lac, WI/St. Mary Springs) singled in Carlson with one away for the game-winning run. Later in the inning, Ray Greco (Downers Grove, IL/North) added a run-scoring double.
 
The Pointers piled on four runs in the eighth and two in the ninth to pull away for the win. UW-Stevens Point took advantage of five walks in the eighth, scoring four runs on just one hit, a three-run triple by Tyler Thomka (Muskego, WI/Muskego) to right.
 
Carlson led the UW-Stevens Point offense, going 4-for-5 with a walk, two runs and two RBI. The senior added a run-scoring single in the ninth to record his second four-hit game of the season.
 
Coady was 2-for-5 with a walk, two runs and three RBI, as the Pointers piled up 14 hits in the game. Riley Spetz (Sturgeon Bay, WI/Sevastopol) was held hitless but did walk twice to run his streak of having reached safely to 48 games in a row.
 
Heinrich Walder (Rosholt, WI/Rosholt) evened his record at 2-2 with three shutout innings of relief work for the Pointers. The sophomore gave up just two hits and two walks and struck out three to earn the win. Nick Prebelski (Green Bay, WI/Notre Dame) and Beau combined to throw the other six innings for UWSP, as Beau set down all four hitters he faced on 13 pitches.
 
Mikole Pierce reached base all five times for UW-Whitewater, going 3-for-3 with two runs and one RBI. Daytona Bryden also had three hits and Kuhlmann and Cannon each had two of the Warhawks' 14 hits.
 
In the first, UW-Whitewater's first six batters reached base, including five hits. The Warhawks got RBI hits by Pierce, Casey Power, and Bryden in the inning.
 
Seven pitchers worked in the game for UW-Whitewater and all seven were charged with at least one run. Olejniczak threw the first 4.2 innings, giving up four runs on four hits, and walked three with six strikeouts. Six relievers combined to give up 11 runs and walked eight.