La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team clinched a berth in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III World Series with a 16-10 victory over UW-Stevens Point Saturday afternoon at Copeland Park. The Eagles, ranked 13th on D3baseball.com Top-25 Poll, advance to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to play in the NCAA III World Series June 2-8.
UWL improves to 36-11 on the season while UW-Stevens Point, ranked 13th on D3baseball.com Top-25, finishes 33-14. The Pointers forced a second championship game with a 24-20 victory earlier Saturday.
UWL's 36 wins are tied for second in single-season school history. UWL also won 36 games in 2015. The Eagles won a school record 39 games in 2016.
It will be UWL's third appearance in the NCAA III world series after making back-to-back trips in 2015 and 2016. UWL made its first-ever appearance in the NCAA III Championship in 2015 in Appleton, Wisconsin, advancing to the best-of-three championship series and a runner-up national finish. The Eagles finished 8-4 in the 2015 national tournament and 5-3 in 2016 while advancing to the championships in Appleton.
UWL started the scoring right away in the first inning in Saturday's second game as Jordan Williams walked and advanced to third on a single by Jack Olver. Mac Born then walked before Ty Hamilton singled to score Williams to make it 1-0. Anthony Vivian then gave the Eagles a 5-0 lead with a grand slam for his 18th home run of the season. The inning continued as George Seaman walked with one out, advanced to second when Tim Urlaub reached on a throwing error and Jack Moran's single loaded the bases. After a strikeout, Olver walked to score Seaman and make it 6-0. Born recorded his second walk of the inning to score Urlaub, giving the Eagles a 7-0 lead after the first inning.
UW-Stevens Point would get a run in the second inning as Anthony Tomczak's double scored Kamden Oliver who had doubled to lead-off the inning.
Moran led-off the third inning with a single for the Eagles and advanced to third on a single by Williams. With one out, Born walked for the third time in as many at-bats to load the bases. Hamilton singled to left scoring Moran while an error on the play allowed Olver to score to extend UWL's lead to 9-1.
Each team would score a run in the fourth inning as Bradley Comer hit a home run for the Pointers while Seaman hit a home run for the Eagles making the score 10-2. It was the third home run on the day for both Comer and Seaman. Jakob Boos would add a home run in the fifth inning for UW-Stevens Point to cut the deficit to 10-3. However, the UWL would get two home runs in its half of the fifth. With one out, Hamilton singled and was followed by Vivian's second home run of the game making it 12-3. One out later, Seaman hit his second home run of the game making it 13-3. It was Seaman's fifth home run in the Super Regional.
The Pointers scored twice in the sixth inning to trail, 13-5. Brenden Canterbury led-off with a walk but was forced out at second when Logan Homolka grounded into a fielder's choice. Homolka advanced to second when Tomczak reached on a walk. Trent Van Ess doubled to score Homolka while Tomczak later came in on a wild pitch.
Olver would hit his 12th home run of the season in UWL's half of the sixth to give the Eagles a 14-5 advantage.
UW-Stevens Point would get a run in the seventh and two in the eighth to cut the lead to 14-8. With one out in the seventh, Oliver doubled moving Comer, who had reached on a fielder's choice, to third. Comer scored on Canterbury's ground out to make it 14-6. In the eighth, Van Ess reached on a hit-by-pitch and moved to second on a single by Logan Matson. Van Ess scored on a single by Boos while Matson later came in on a single by Payton Nelson. UWL's relief pitcher Tyler Schmitt would get a double play ground out to end the Pointers' threat in the eighth.
With one out in UWL's eighth inning, Williams singled and scored on Olver's second home run of the game.
Oliver led off the ninth inning with a single for UW-Stevens Point. Then with two outs, Tomczak hit a two-run home run as the Pointers cut the deficit to 16-10. UWL's Tucker Bouche recorded the final out on a strikeout to secure the 16-10 win.
Owen Anderson (4-5) earned the win for the Eagles as he went 5.0 innings, allowing three runs on six hits while striking out four. Schmitt came on in relief and gave up five runs on five hits and two walks in 3.0 innings of work. Bouche pitched the ninth inning for UWL, allowing two hits and two runs while striking out two.
Offensively, UWL finished with 17 hits with all nine starters recording at least one. The Eagles had six hitters finish with multi-hit games including three each from Olver and Hamilton while Williams, Vivian, Seaman, and Moran each had two. Vivian had six RBI and two runs while Olver finished with four RBI and four runs. Hamilton and Seaman each drove in two runs.
JD Schultz (4-2) suffered the loss for the Pointers as he allowed seven runs (five earned) on four hits and three walks in 0.2 of an inning.
UW-Stevens Point finished with 13 hits including three each from Oliver and Tomczak. Tomczak also finished with three RBI.