La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team defeated Beloit College (Wis.), 17-2, in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional Wednesday afternoon at Copeland Park.  The Eagles, ranked fourth in the D3baseball.com Top-25 poll and third on the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Division III Top-30 poll, improve to 35-8 on the season.  The Buccaneers drop to 27-13 this season.  UWL advances to play Sain John's University (Minn.) Thursday, May 19 at 4:30 p.m.  Beloit (Wis.) will play The College of Saint Scholastica (Minn.) Thursday, March 14 at 10 a.m. in an elimination game.    
 
UWL led 1-0 after a Taylor Kohlwey solo home run in the bottom of the first inning, his eighth of the season.  Kohlwey extended his hitting streak to 46 games, tied for the second-longest in NCAA Division III history.

The Eagles extended the lead with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second.  Carter Hoffman singled to open the frame and stole second.  Alex Brown hit an infield single, and a sacrifice bunt from Travis Buxton-Verstegan moved the runners to second and third.  The next batter, Ben Morgan, hit a deep fly ball to right, which was dropped by the right fielder, allowing two runs to score, making it 3-0 after two innings.
 
UWL scored two more runs on three hits in the bottom of the fourth, featuring back-to-back RBI doubles from Morgan and Nate Heili to extend the lead to 5-0. 
 
The Eagles added three more runs in the fifth.  Alex Cordova reached on an error to open the frame and advanced to second on a ground out.  Justin Anderson hit a two-run home run to left, his team-leading 10th of the year, driving in Cordova to make it 7-0.  Hoffman then singled, stole second, and scored on a Brown single to left-center to make it 8-0.
 
In the sixth, UWL scored four runs on six hits, all with two outs in the inning.  Kohlwey tripled to deep center, scoring Heili, who had singled to lead off the frame, to make it 9-0.  Anderson followed with a double to center, scoring Kohlwey, and it was 10-0.  Hoffman singled, and advanced to second on the throw home, scoring Anderson to push the lead to 11-0.  Brown singled to center, driving in Hoffman and the Eagles led 12-0.
 
Kohlwey hit his second home run of the game in the bottom of the seventh, a three-run home run to right to give UWL a 15-0 lead.  Joel Zyhowski and JJ Belknapp had singled prior to Kohlwey's ninth home run of the season.   
 
Beloit (Wis.) got on the board in the top of the eighth, scoring a pair of unearned runs.  Matt Meade was hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded to score Mark Christine and a sacrifice fly from Kam Sallee allowed Mike Gulve to score, to make it 15-2. 
 
The Eagles got the runs back in the bottom of the frame.  A single from Alex Robson with one out followed by a Zyhowski double put runners on second and third.  Belknapp grounded out, scoring Robson to make it 16-2, also moving Zyhowski to third.  Zyhowski scored on a Nate Roethle single to right to make it 17-2. 
 
Caleb Boushley (9-0) earned the win for UWL, giving up three hits over 6.0 innings.  He struck out five and walked two.  He has pitched at least 6.0 innings in nine of his 11 starts this season.   
 
UWL recorded a season-high 23 hits, including nine for extra bases.  Eight of the nine batters in the starting lineup recorded a hit for the Eagles and also scored in the game.  Kohlwey went 3-for-5 with the two home runs and a triple, drove in five runs, and also scored three times.  Anderson was 3-for-4 with three runs scored and extended his UWL single-season RBI record with three to 72 for the year.  Brown went 3-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored, and Hoffman was 3-for-4 with a RBI and three runs scored, also stealing a pair of bases.  Zyhowski, Buxton-Verstegen, and Heili each had a pair of hits for UWL. 

"It was great to get that first win," said UWL head coach Chris Schwarz. "Game one is always the most important and it points us in the right direction for the rest of the tournament."

Austin Padjen (5-4) took the loss for Beloit (Wis.), giving up eight runs on 10 hits over 5.0 innings.  He struck out three and walked one.  Mike Gulve 2-for-3 for the Buccaneers with a run scored.  Meade and Sallee each drove in a run.