University of Wisconsin-Whitewater won the outright Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) baseball regular season title with a 19-4 seven-inning victory over UW-Platteville at Prucha Field at Jim Miller Stadium on May 3.
It is the second straight and 23rd overall regular-season championship in program history for UW-Whitewater (34-4 overall, 24-4 WIAC). The Warhawks also secured the top seed for the WIAC Tournament (presented by Culver’s) that begins May 8, and will host the four-team, double-elimination event that will determine the conference’s automatic NCAA qualifier. UW-La Crosse is the No. 2 seed, while UW-Oshkosh is the No. 3 seed and UW-Platteville is the No. 4 seed.
In the opening game against UW-Platteville (18-19, 13-15) on May 3, the Pioneers scored three runs in the opening frame on a run-scoring single by Anthony Massa, and RBI groundouts by Sam Meidenbau and Connor Gressens.
In the bottom of the inning, Eli Frank had a sacrifice fly and Adam Cootway hit a solo homerun to close the gap to just one run. From there, it was all UW-Whitewater, as the Warhawks scored in every single inning.
Matt Scolan highlighted the second inning, hitting a 3-run homer to collect the program career RBI record. Later in the game, Scolan would break career walks record as well.
The Warhawks extended the lead to nine in the fourth, highlighted by 2-RBI doubles from both Cootway and Andy Theis. Thies scored himself on a Hopper hit, sliding right under the tag from the catcher. Dominik McVay finished the inning with his own RBI to put the Warhawks up 12-3.
In the fifth inning, UW-Platteville capitalized on an error to get a runner on third and Trinity Beland had sacrifice fly for their fourth run of the game.
In the bottom of the frame, Sam Paden had a base-clearing triple to extend the lead to double digits. Daryl Jackson added his own RBI single.
Evan Olson, Thies, and Jackson Koenig all scored a run in the sixth for a 19-4 lead.
Cade Hansen pitched a complete game, notching 11 strikeouts in a 7.0 inning win.
Gressens led UW-Platteville with a pair of hits and RBI.
Source: WIAC website, which indicates “UW-Whitewater Sports Information contributed to this recap.”
