UW-L Splits Doubleheader at Nationally-Ranked UW-Whitewater

For Immediate Release: Thursday, April 9, 2009

Whitewater, Wis. – The UW-La Crosse baseball team split its WIAC doubleheader at 25th-ranked UW-Whitewater Thursday afternoon at Prucha Field. The Warhawks, ranked 25th in the American Baseball Coaches Association Poll, won the opener, 9-8, before the Eagles came back to take the nightcap, 3-2. UW-L is now 13-5 overall and 6-2 in the WIAC while UW-Whitewater is 13-6 overall and 5-3 in the league.

Joey Casper

In the opener, UW-L took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first as Storm Gram knocked in Travis Kerr who had opened the game with a double. The Eagles added three runs in the top of the second as Joey Casper hit a solo home run to start the inning. Matt Trocke added an RBI single and Gram a run-scoring double to make it 4-0. The Warhawks came right back in the bottom of the second to tally three runs, highlighted by Mike Kenseth's two-run single.

Tony Peterson had a two-run double in the top of third scoring Casper and Cory Poppitz for a 6-3 UW-L lead, but UW-Whitewater's Nick Rechlitz had an RBI double in the bottom half to cut the lead to 6-4. The Warhawks cut the lead to 6-5 in the fourth on an RBI groundout, but the Eagles scored twice in the top of the fifth on Casper's RBI double and Peterson's run-scoring single. Ryan Leavitt's fielder's choice scored a run for the Warhawks in the sixth to make it 8-6 and Kevin Zalnis tied the contest at 8-8 with a two-run home run in the seventh.

UW-Whitewater scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. Tony Wong opened with a single and moved to second after Matt Beyer was hit-by-pitch with one out. Both runners advanced on stolen bases and Leavitt was walked to load the bases. Wong was forced out on a fielder's choice for the second out, but UW-L's Zach Lauersdorf threw a wild pitch to score Beyer with the winning run.

Lauersdorf suffered the loss, pitching 2.1 innings, allowing two hits, one run (unearned) and one walk while striking out one. Luke Zurbriggen started for the Eagles, going 6.0 innings, allowing seven hits, six runs (five earned) and three walks with five strikeouts.

Storm Gram

Gram finished 3-for-5 at the plate for UW-L with two RBI while Casper was 2-for-2 with three runs scored, two RBI and three walks. Peterson was 2-for-4 with three RBI while Kerr scored twice.

In the nightcap, UW-Whitewater took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third on Leavitt's RBI single, but Jay Fanta gave UW-L a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth on a two-run home run. Gram had singled with two outs prior to Fanta's home run. Sam Petrasko tied the game at 2-2 with a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth for the Warhawks and the game remained tied until the ninth inning. Gram singled with one out in the top of the ninth for the Eagles, but was forced out on Fanta's fielder's choice. Casper then singled and Darren O'Donnnell walked to load the bases with two outs and Poppitz drew a walk off Ben Versnik to score the deciding run.

Brandon Walczak went 8.1 innings to earn the win for UW-L. UW-Whitewater's Rob Coe opened the bottom of the ninth with a single and was replaced by pinch-runner Wong. After Rechlitz grounded out to third to move Wong to second, the Eagles' Levi Adank came in to pitch. He struck out Travis Wessels and after Wong stole third, retired pinch-hitter Cory Trepanier on a groundout.

Brandon Walczak

Walczak allowed eight hits and two runs (one earned) with three strikeouts to get the win while Adank pitched 0.2 of an inning for the save. Gram was 2-for-4 with a run scored while Fanta finished 1-for-4 with two runs and two RBI.

The teams will play another doubleheader Friday at noon.