UW-L Falls to St. Mary's in Home Opener

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, March 24, 2009

La Crosse, Wis. – The UW-La Crosse baseball team fell 6-5 to St. Mary's University (Minn.) Tuesday afternoon in its home opener at North Campus Field. The Eagles fall to 7-3 on the season while the Cardinals improve to 4-6.

UW-L took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second as Sean Cory scored on a throwing error by St. Mary's catcher Alex Schmidt after stealing third base. St. Mary's tied the contest at 1-1 in the sixth on Curt Swanson's solo home run.

The Cardinals took a 4-1 lead in the top of the seventh. Brandon Haugh opened the inning with a single and scored on Tyler Kruse's triple for a 2-1 advantage. Joe Krause then bunted for a hit to score Kruse and it was 3-1. Andrew Warren later added a run-scoring single.

St. Mary's added a run in the eighth on back-to-back doubles from Haugh and Kruse. UW-L cut the lead to 5-2 in the bottom of the inning as Cory scored on a passed ball. The Cardinals took a 6-2 lead in the ninth as pinch-runner Jake Dwyer scored on a Haugh sacrifice fly.

The Eagles tallied three times in the bottom of the ninth and had the tying run at third base. Travis Kerr, Storm Gram and Darren O'Donnell walked to lead off the inning for UW-L. Kerr scored on a Jay Fanta sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 6-3 and Cory doubled home Gram to make it 6-4. David Dahlstrom came in for St. Mary's and forced in O'Donnell on a balk for a 6-5 lead, but Dahlstrom retired Cory Poppitz on a groundout and Lance Poppy on a strikout with the tying run at third.

Joey Casper, Fanta and Cory each had two hits for UW-L. Cory also scored twice. Casey Jacobson (1-0) picked up the victory over St. Mary's while Dahlstrom earned the save (1). Luke Zurbriggen (1-1) suffered the loss for the Eagles, pitching 4.1 innings, allowing eight hits, five runs and two walks. Brandon Walczak started for UW-L, going 3.0 innings, allowing two hits and one walk.

UW-L returns to action Wednesday, April 1 at UW-Platteville in its WIAC opener at 1 p.m.