UW-Stevens Point Completes Series Sweep

For Immediate Release: Sunday, April 19, 2009

La Crosse, Wis. – The UW-Stevens Point baseball team completed a four-game series sweep of UW-La Crosse with a pair of victories Sunday afternoon at North Campus Field. The Pointers took the opener, 13-3, and the nightcap, 8-7. UW-L falls to 16-10 overall and 9-7 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while UW-Stevens Point improves to 19-9 overall and 7-5 in the league.

In the opener Sunday, Kyle Barry (3-4) earned the win for UW-Stevens Point, pitching 7.1 innings, allowing eight hits, three runs and two walks with 10 strikeouts.

The Pointers took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first on two unearned runs, but the Eagles cut the margin to 2-1 in the bottom half of the inning on Jay Fanta’s solo home run. UW-L tied the game in the second on Darren O’Donnell’s RBI single, but UW-Stevens Point took the lead for good on Sam Spurney’s three-run home run in the top of the third.

Spurney hit his second home run of the game in the seventh for a 6-2 lead and Jordan Rennicke later added an RBI single in the inning. Spurney, who finished 3-for-6 with six RBI and two runs, had a two-run single in the eighth. UW-L’s Joey Casper had an RBI double in the eighth to score Fanta.

Brad Archambeau went 4-for-5 for UW-Stevens Point with three runs scored and an RBI.

Ross Benitz (6-3) suffered the loss for UW-L, pitching 7.0 innings, allowing nine hits, seven runs (four earned) and two walks while striking out six. Fanta was 3-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored and an RBI while Casper finished 3-for-3 with an RBI.

In the nightcap, Spurney opened the scoring with a two-run single in the top of the first before the Eagles’ Travis Kerr and Fanta hit back-to-back doubles in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to 2-1.

UW-Stevens Point scored once in the top of the second for a 3-1 lead and added three runs in the third highlighted by an RBI double from Spurney and RBI triple from Jeremy Richter. UW-L’s Sean Cory hit a run-scoring triple in the bottom of the third to make it 6-2 and the Eagles cut the lead to 6-4 with a pair of runs in the fifth. Cory Poppitz had a run-scoring single and Casper an RBI double. Eric Fritz then hit a two-run home run in the top of the sixth for an 8-4 lead for UW-Stevens Point.

The Eagles tallied three times in the bottom of the eighth to make it 8-7 as Kerr had a two-run double and Fanta added an RBI double, but UW-L went down in order in the bottom of the ninth.

Jeff Zielke (3-0) picked up the victory for UW-Stevens Point, pitching 5.0 innings, allowing five hits, three runs and one walk while striking out four.

Bryant Rude (3-2) suffered the loss for UW-L, going 7.0 innings, allowing seven hits, eight runs (six earned) and two walks with 10 strikeouts. He also hit five batters. Levi Adank went 2.0 innings, allowing two walks with two strikeouts.

Kerr, Fanta, Casper and Lance Poppy each had two hits for the Eagles while Kerr and Fanta also finished with two RBI.

UW-L returns to action Tuesday, April 21 at Gustavus Adolphus (Minn.) at 2:30 p.m.