Eagles Take Doubleheader From Titans
The nationally ranked UW-La Crosse baseball team held a lead in each inning as the Eagles swept a doubleheader over UW-Oshkosh on Saturday (April 16) in La Crosse.
UW-La Crosse (16-5, 6-0 WIAC), which scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning during both contests, defeated UW-Oshkosh (8-11-1, 3-3 WIAC) by scores of 7-1 in the opening game and 15-2 in seven innings during the nightcap. The Eagles, who sit alone atop the WIAC standings, are ranked 12th in the NCAA Division III by D3baseball.com.
Each UW-La Crosse starter notched a hit in Saturday's first contest before the Eagles broke open a tight second game with a 10-run seventh inning.
Caleb Boushley (4-0) earned the complete-game win on the mound for UW-La Crosse in the opener, allowing one run on six hits with 10 strikeouts.
Eagles starting pitcher Troy Kenkel (4-1) picked up the win in the nightcap, ceding two runs on six hits and three walks across four innings. Logan Mallek earned his first save, tossing the final three innings in scoreless fashion and recording three strikeouts.
Alex Brown paced UW-La Crosse with five hits and four runs batted in on the day. Justin Anderson collected four hits and four RBIs in the two games for the Eagles, who also received four hits from Nate Heili and four RBIs from Alex Cordova.
UW-Oshkosh's Robbie Kleman, Tyler Kozlowski and Dylan Ott each had three hits on the day, including two in the first game. Kleman also launched his first home run of the season and Ott had his first double during the opener.
Eagles outfielder Taylor Kohlwey extended his hitting streak to 24 games while Titans outfielder Johnny Eagan had a 13-game hitting streak snapped in Saturday's opener.
In Saturday's first contest, UW-La Crosse jumped out to a 4-0 lead after two innings in support of Boushley's second complete game of the year.
Kohlwey and Carter Hoffman has run-scoring hits in the first inning before Cordova hit a two-run home run off of UW-Oshkosh starting pitcher Peter Jewell in the second frame.
Boushley surrendered a solo homer to Robbie Kleman in the fourth inning, but the Eagles got the run back in the home half of the fourth frame. Travis Buxton-Verstegen singled to lead off the inning, moved to second on a balk by Jewell, advanced to third on a failed pickoff throw by Titans catcher Taylor Grimm, and scored on a fielding error by Titans shortstop Jack Paulson.
UW-La Crosse tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the eighth inning on RBI hits from Brown and Buxton-Verstegen.
Jewell (1-2) was charged with the loss for UW-Oshkosh, yielding all seven runs (six earned) on 11 hits in 7.1 innings pitched. He registered five strikeouts and issued one walk.
Anderson, Brown, Buxton-Verstegen and Heili each had two of the Eagles' 13 hits.
In the second game, UW-Oshkosh pulled within one run on two occasions before UW-La Crosse put the game away with its 10-run seventh inning that featured six hits, three hit batters, two wild pitches, one walk and one Titan error.
The Eagles opened the scoring on a two-run single by Anderson in the first inning.
UW-Oshkosh trimmed its deficit to 2-1 in the third inning when Kleman drew a bases-loaded walk against Kenkel, but UW-La Crosse responded with a run-scoring single by Brown in the bottom of the frame.
An RBI single by Paulson cut the Eagles' lead to 3-2 in the fourth frame, but UW-La Crosse answered with a run-scoring single by Kohlwey and a sacrifice fly by Anderson to extend its advantage to 5-2.
UW-Oshkosh relief pitcher Matt Sabel retired five straight Eagles during the fourth and fifth innings before Heili led off the decisive sixth frame with a single. Sabel allowed two more hits and hit a batter before being relieved by Nick Poretto, who did not retire any of the five Eagles he faced.
Chris Atwood entered for Poretto and gave up a single to Heili as the first 10 Eagles batters reached base, and Brown, Buxton-Verstegen and Cordova each drove in two runs in the sixth frame.
Mallek worked a perfect seventh inning for the Eagles before the game was ended due to the 10-run rule.
Titans starting pitcher Colan Treml (2-4) suffered the loss, ceding five runs (four earned) in 3.1 innings of work.
UW-Oshkosh ousted the Eagles from last year's WIAC Championship by an 11-4 score, but UW-La Crosse went on to finish as the national runner-up.
The Titans and Eagles complete their four-game series with a doubleheader on Sunday (April 17) in La Crosse.