UW-L Earns Doubleheader Sweep of St. John's

For Immediate Release: Monday, March 17, 2008

Chandler, Ariz. – The UW-La Crosse baseball team improved to 5-2 on the season with a doubleheader sweep of St. John's University (Minn.) Monday at Gilbert Community College in Chandler. St. John's dropped to 0-2 as the Johnnies opened their 2008 season.

In the opener, St. John's took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third as Mike Krempa hit a lead-off home run. The Johnnies led 2-0 in the fifth as Ryan Sufka an unearned run.

UW-L tied the contest in the bottom of the fifth as Dusty Otto hit a solo home run and Travis Kerr had an RBI single scoring Storm Gram.

St. John's took a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh as Sufka scored on a Josh Heinbigner single, but UW-L won the game with two runs in the bottom of the inning. Gram opened the inning being hit-by-pitch and later scored on Darren O'Donnell's triple, who then scored the game-winning run on a St. John's wild pitch.

Luke Zurbriggen pitched a complete-game for UW-L to earn the win. He went 7.0 innings, allowing eight hits and three runs (two earned) while striking out four. O'Donnell finished 2-for-4 for the Eagles with a run scored and RBI while Gram scored twice.

In the second game, UW-L jumped out to a 2-0 lead after two innings. Mike Schmidt had a sacrifice fly in the top of the first scoring Gram while Otto had an RBI single scoring Cory Poppitz in the second inning. St. John's cut the lead to 2-1 in the third as Chace Pollock hit a home run.

The Eagles' took a 3-1 lead in the fourth as Gram had a run-scoring single and led 5-1 in the sixth innings on Otto's two-run home run, scoring Poppitz. The Johnnies added a run in the seventh inning on Krempa's RBI single scoring Brandon Wolf.

Greg Gibson picked up the win for UW-L, pitching 6.0 innings, allowing two hits, one run and one walk with four strikeouts. Otto finished 3-for-3 at the plate with a home run and three runs scored. Gram was 2-for-3 with a run scored and RBI while Poppitz scored a pair of runs.

UW-L returns to action Tuesday, March 18 versus Concordia (Wis.) at 2:30 p.m. in Scottsdale, Arizona.