Baseball Team Earns Doubleheader Sweep of UW-Stout

For Immediate Release: Saturday, May 2, 2009

La Crosse, Wis. – The UW-La Crosse baseball team earned a doubleheader sweep of UW-Stout Saturday afternoon at North Campus Field. The Eagles won the opener, 4-3, and the nightcap, 9-3. UW-L improves to 20-15 overall and 11-11 in the WIAC while UW-Stout falls to 18-16 overall and 9-13 in the conference.

The Eagles scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth to earn the victory in the opener Saturday afternoon. Joey Casper opened the inning with his second double of the game. Christopher Lammert came in to pitch for UW-Stout and Casper moved to third on a passed ball. Lammert then retired pinch-hitter Zach Harazin on a fly out to right field. UW-L's Storm Gram and Jay Fanta were intentionally walked to load the bases with one out. Cory Poppitz then hit a soft grounder to shortstop that was bobbled and the Blue Devils were only able to get the force out at second base with Casper scoring the winning run.

Ross Benitz (7-4) earned the win for UW-L, pitching 9.0 innings, allowing eight hits, three runs and two walks with seven strikeouts.

UW-Stout took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first as Brian Giebel opened the game with a home run. UW-L took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second as Lance Poppy scored on a Blue Devils' error and Darren O'Donnell scored on a wild pitch. The Blue Devils regained the lead with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth on Matt Tschida's two-run ground-rule double. O'Donnell tied the contest with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth to score Poppitz.

O'Donnell finished 2-for-3 at the plate with a run scored and RBI for UW-L while Casper and Poppitz both finished 2-for-5 with a run scored. Poppitz also had one RBI.

Sam Weinberg (1-1) suffered the loss for UW-Stout, pitching 0.2 of an inning, allowing one hit and one run. Matt Doornink started for the Blue Devils, pitching 2.0 innings, allowing one hit, two runs (one earned) and four walks with one strikeout. Greg Smolinski went 2-for-2 with one run and two walks while Tschida had two RBI.

UW-L took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first in the nightcap as Fanta had a two-run double and O'Donnell a run-scoring triple. The Eagles added two more runs in the bottom of the third on run-scoring singles from O'Donnell and Poppy. Josh Weber hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth for a 6-0 lead and UW-L tallied three runs in the fifth as Matt Trocke had a sacrifice fly, Weber an RBI groundout and Poppy scored on a passed ball.

The Blue Devils scored three runs in the top of the sixth as Ryan Gilbertson hit a two-run single and Tschida had a run-scoring single.

Brandon Walczak (3-1) picked up the win for UW-L, pitching 8.0 innings, allowing seven hits, three runs and four walks while striking out four. O'Donnell finished 4-for-4 with a run scored, two RBI, one double and one triple. Fanta was 2-for-5 with two runs scored, two RBI and a double while Weber had two RBI.

Ethan Smallbrook (1-2) took the loss for UW-Stout, going 3.0 innings, allowing five hits, five runs (three earned) and two walks with one strikeout. Gilbertson was 2-for-4 with two RBI while Tschida finished 2-for-3 with an RBI.

The teams will play another doubleheader Sunday starting at noon at North Campus Field.