La Crosse, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team clinched at least a share of the 2016 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) regular-season title with a doubleheader sweep of UW-Whitewater Saturday afternoon at Copeland Park.  The Eagles won the opener, 6-2, and the nightcap, 6-0.
 
UWL, ranked fifth on this week's D3baseball.com Top-25 Poll, improves to 25-6 on the season and 14-0 in the WIAC.  The Eagles have won 19 of their last 21 games overall. UW-Whitewater, sixth on this week's D3baseball.com Top-25 Poll, drops to 21-8 overall and 8-6 in the conference.  UWL is also first in this week's NCAA Division III Midwest Region rankings while UW-Whitewater is third.
 
With the doubleheader sweep Saturday, UWL clinches at least a share of its 14th regular-season title in school history and first since 2012.  The Eagles lead UW-Whitewater and UW-Stevens Point by six games with six remaining. 
 
UWL took 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first in Saturday's opener with a pair of unearned runs after two UW-Whitewater errors.  Alex Cordova reached on a fielding error with one out and advanced to second on Taylor Kohlwey's walk.  After a groundout moved the runners up to second and third, Cordova and Kohlwey scored on the second fielding error of the inning by UW-Whitewater, this one coming off the bat of Carter Hoffman.
 
UW-Whitewater tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the fourth.  Dane Burman and Steve Chamberlain singled to start the inning with Burman later scoring on Austin Jones' infield single to cut UWL's lead to 2-1.  After a groundout, Aaron Markley's sacrifice fly knocked in Chamberlain to tie the game at 2-2.
 
UWL took the lead with four runs in the bottom of the sixth. Cordova was hit-by-pitch to start the inning, stole second and advanced to third on Kohlwey's bunt single, which extended Kohlwey's hitting streak to 33 games.  Justin Anderson drew a walk to load the bases with no outs.  After a pop-out for the first out of the inning, Alex Brown's two-run double to right field knocked in Cordova and Kohlwey to give the Eagles a 4-2 lead.  Ben Morgan followed with a sacrifice fly to score Anderson to make it 5-2 and Brown came in on the play after an errant throw from the UW-Whitewater outfield for a 6-2 lead.
 
Caleb Boushley (6-0) earned the complete-game victory in the opener for UWL. He went 9.0 innings, allowing eight hits, two runs and two walks while striking out nine.  After UW-Whitewater scored its two runs of the game on three hits in the top of the fourth, Boushley allowed only three hits over the final five innings with no runner advancing past second base.
 
It is Boushley's third complete-game of the season while recording a 1.07 earned run average in his eighth start of the year.  
 
UWL was held to a season-low four hits in Saturday's opener. Along with Kohlwey extending his hitting streak to 33 games dating back to last season, Cordova had an infield single in the bottom of the third to extend his hitting streak to 22.
 
Mike Nompleggi (2-1) suffered the loss for UW-Whitewater, pitching 6.0 innings, allowing four hits, six runs (three earned) and two walks while recording five strikeouts. The Warhawks totaled eight hits in the opener with Burman and Blake Fleischman each finishing with two.
 
UWL took an early 3-0 lead after two innings in the nightcap Saturday.  Joel Zyhowski reached on a throwing error in the bottom of the first and advanced to second on a Cordova walk.  Both runners advanced a base on Kohlwey's groundout with Zyhowski later coming in on Anderson's groundout.
 
The Eagles scored twice in the bottom of the second. Travis Buxton-Verstegen and Seth Feldman singled with one out with Buxton-Verstegen then stealing third and scoring on a Warhawks' throwing error. Feldman stole second on the play and advanced to third on another UW-Whitewater throwing error.  Nate Heili followed with a bunt single to score Feldman to make it 3-0.
 
Hoffman singled with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and scored on Brown's RBI double to give UWL a 4-0 advantage.  The Eagles added a pair of two-out unearned runs in the bottom of the eighth.  Zyhowski reached on a fielding error with two outs and moved to second on a passed ball.  Cordova walked and advanced to second after Zyhowski went to third on a throwing error.  Kohlwey followed with a two-run RBI single to score Zyhowski and Cordova and extend his hitting streak to 34 games.
 
Troy Kenkel (6-2) earned the victory in the nightcap for UWL, going 8.0 innings, allowing 10 hits and three walks while recording a career-high 10 strikeouts.  He lowered his ERA to 2.63 on the season in his team-leading ninth start of the season.
 
Logan Mallek pitched 1.0 inning of relief in Saturday's nightcap, recording two strikeouts.
 
It is UWL's fourth shutout of the season, including its third in WIAC play. The Eagles recorded their first shutout over UW-Whitewater since a 6-0 win May 11, 2013 in the WIAC Tournament.
 
The Eagles totaled eight hits in Saturday's second game as Hoffman went 2-for-3 with a run scored and Heili finished 2-for-4.  Zyhowski scored twice.
 
Curtis Morgan (4-1) took the loss for UW-Whitewater, pitching 2.1 innings, allowing three hits, three runs (one earned) and three walks.  The Warhawks finished with 10 hits, including two each from Chamberlain, Jones, Matt Wary and Cal Aldridge.  UW-Whitewater left 10 runners on base.

The teams will play another doubleheader Sunday, May 1 starting at noon at Copeland Park.