UW-L Clinches Berth in WIAC Tournament with Sweep of UW-Stout

For Immediate Release: Sunday, May 3, 2009

La Crosse, Wis. – The UW-La Crosse baseball team clinched a berth in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tournament with a doubleheader sweep of UW-Stout Sunday afternoon at North Campus Field. The Eagles won the opener, 5-3, and took the nightcap, 16-7.

UW-L is now 22-15 overall and 13-11 in the WIAC while UW-Stout is 18-18 overall and 9-15 in the conference. The Eagles are the fourth-seed for the WIAC Tournament and will face third-seeded UW-Oshkosh Friday, May 8 at 10 a.m. at UW-Whitewater. UW-Whitewater is the top-seed while UW-Stevens Point is the second-seed.

In the opener Sunday, the Eagles took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second as Cory Poppitz knocked in Jay Fanta with a single. UW-L made it 2-0 in the fifth as Joey Casper had an infield single to score Lance Poppy.

UW-Stout cut the lead to 2-1 in the top of the sixth as Ryan Gilbertson scored on a UW-L error. Poppitz gave UW-L a 3-1 lead with an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth to score Fanta and Matt Trocke made it 5-1 with a two-run double to score Poppitz and Darren O'Donnell.

The Blue Devils scored twice in the top of the ninth and had the tying runs on base. Brian Giebel had a sacrifice fly with one out to make the margin 5-2 and Andy LaBrosse scored with two outs on another UW-L error to cut the deficit to two. Steve Henes then retired Gilbertson on fly out to rightfield to end the game.

Zach Lauersdorf (3-1) earned the win for UW-L, pitching 8.0 innings, allowing five hits, three runs (one earned) and two walks while striking out seven. Henes picked up his third save of the season, pitching 1.0 inning, alloing one hit with one strikeout.

Poppitz was 3-for-4 at the plate with two RBI and a run scored while Poppy and Trocke both finished with two hits. Trocke also had two RBI while Fanta scored twice.

Nate Hanson (3-4) suffered the loss for UW-Stout, going 7.1 innings, allowing eight hits, four runs and two walks with two strikeouts. Andy Lorenzen was 2-for-4.

In the nightcap, UW-L scored 12 unearned runs as UW-Stout finished with 10 errors. The Eagles had their lead cut to 7-6 in the top of the seventh, but UW-L tallied eight unearned runs in the bottom of the inning to lead 14-6. Poppitz had an RBI single in the seventh for UW-L while Mickey Boyle hit an RBI triple and Storm Gram a three-run double.

The Eagles led 4-0 after two innings and 6-1 after three. Travis Kerr hit a three-run triple in the second. UW-Stout trailed 7-3 after five innings, but scored twice in the sixth and once in the seventh to cut the lead to 7-6. UW-L then scored eight times in the seventh.

Levi Adank (2-2) picked up the win for the Eagles, going 5.0 innings, allowing three hits, three runs and four walks with two strikeouts. Gram finished 1-for-4 with two runs scored and four RBI while Fanta was 3-for-5 with two runs and Kerr 2-for-5 with two runs and three RBI. Corey Geary was 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI.

Russ Jiskra (2-4) took the loss for UW-Stout, pitching 4.0 innings, allowing seven hits, six runs (two earned) and one walk while striking out four. Adam Stuessel, Alex Burian and Ben Bengtson each had two hits.