By Chris Lindeke
Assistant Athletic Director, Strategic Communications and Branding
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Sunday, May 16, 2021
No. 3 UW-Whitewater Baseball Closes Regular Season With Road Win
The No. 3 ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater baseball team capped the 2021 regular season Sunday afternoon with a 7-6 victory in 13 innings at UW-Oshkosh in a non-conference game.
The Warhawks (34-5 overall), who clinched a share of the WIAC regular season championship on Saturday with two wins against UW-Eau Claire, will start the postseason Friday at 10 a.m. with a game against the highest remaining seed following Wednesday’s play-in games.
Catcher Ryan Norton posted the go-ahead hit with two outs in the top of the 13th inning Sunday, plating first baseman Donovan Brandl with a single to right field.
Pitcher Ben Muscatello earned his first win of the year by tossing the final three innings, pitching around a leadoff base hit in the bottom of the 13th to cap the contest.
UW-Whitewater took the early lead on a sacrifice fly by right fielder Jacob DeMeyer and a two-out, two-run double down the right field line by left fielder Matt Korman.
The Titans (20-18) got on the board with one run in the fourth before the Warhawks plated two more in the top of the sixth on two-out, RBI hits from Korman and Brandl.
UW-W tacked on one more in the seventh on a sacrifice fly from second baseman Sam Vomhof before UW-Oshkosh rallied to tie the game with three in the seventh and two in the eighth.
Connor Moroder started the game on the mound for the Warhawks, allowing one run and striking out six over five innings of work. Trey Bretl, Jim Jarecki and Matt O’Sullivan all pitched in relief before Muscatello entered the game to start the bottom of the 11th.
UW-Whitewater will host all games played Friday-Sunday in next week’s WIAC Championship, which is presented by Culver’s.