Editor’s note: The following announcement appears in the WIAC website.
MADISON, Wis.–University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and UW-Whitewater will participate in the Super Regional round of the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship after winning regional finals on May 19.
UW-La Crosse (35-14) beat Coe College (Iowa) 9-7 in the La Crosse Regional, while UW-Whitewater (38-8) posted a 6-4 triumph over Centre College (Ky.) in the Whitewater Regional. The conference duo will meet in a best-of-three Super Regional series in Whitewater May 24-25, with the winner advancing to the NCAA Division III World Series.
UW-La Crosse posted a 19-2 triumph over Bethel University (Minn.) in its first regional contest, and dropped a 12-11, 10-inning decision to Coe College (Iowa). The Eagles rebounded with an 18-15 win over Benedictine University (Ill.) and defeated Coe 18-11 to setup a winner-take-all rematch with the Kohawks.
UW-Whitewater opened regional action with a 9-2 win over Crown College (Minn.) and followed with a 20-3 victory over California Lutheran University to advance to the regional final.
Against Centre (36-13), the Warhawks got on the board in the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Sam Paden.
Centre took a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning on a two-run single, but UW-Whitewater quickly tied the game in bottom of the inning on a run-scoring single by Paden.
Centre grabbed a 4-2 advantage in the fifth, and the Warhawks took the lead in seventh on Paden’s double down the leftfield line that scored Andy Thies, who led off the inning with a walk. Darryl Jackson’s single to center field scored Paden, and Matt Scolan hit a deep two-run home run to right field.
Cade Hensen earned the win to improve to 4-0 on the season, while Jack Hagen worked the ninth inning for his first collegiate save.
In the clinching game against Coe (31-16), the Kohawks took a 2-0 lead in in the top of the first inning on a two-run single.
UW-La Crosse countered in the bottom of the inning on a RBI single by George Seaman and Anthony Vivian’s two-run home run.
The Eagles extended their advantage to 4-2 in the fifth inning on a solo home run from Nate Witte.
In the seventh, Mac Born had a run scoring single and was followed by Seaman’s three-run home run to right field for an 8-2 lead.
Coe scored five runs on one hit, three walks and three hit batsman in the eighth inning to get within 8-7.
The Eagles added an insurance run in the bottom of the inning on Jack Moran’s run scoring double to right center.
Isaiah Katz worked 7.1 innings to secure the win and improve to 7-5 on the year, while Tyler Schmitt recorded his first save of the season after pitching the final 1.2 innings.
Editor’s note: The bracket, which has not been completed yet as of the time of this posting, may be found here.
