Hooper and Donovan pitch gems on Championship Saturday

UW-Whitewater is the 2010’s undisputed WIAC baseball champion. The Warhawks defeated archrival, UW-Stevens Point, 5-3 and 6-2 Saturday, to capture the WIAC conference tournament and the conference’s automatic berth in NCAA Division III regional play beginning on Wednesday.

Whitewater out hit, out pitched, and out executed the Pointers less than 24 hours after being thrashed 15-7 by the five-time defending postseason champions.

It was UW-Whitewater’s pitching Saturday that set the table for the “championship Saturday” two game sweep.

In the opener, Jason Hooper scattered seven hits over 7 1/3 innings and Hawk “closer” Ben Versnik got the final five outs in hitless fashion to garner his eighth save of the season. Each worked out of a bases-leaded situation without allowing a run.

As a senior, the victory was even more special for Hooper, a Lake Mills native.

“It feels amazing,” Hooper said following the game. “It is great to get it (postseason title) back. I’ts been six years since we’ve had one of these.”

Jeff Donovan got the call for game-two and didn’t disappoint going 8 1/3 innings giving way to Riley Tincher with one out in the ninth and leaded 6-2. Tincher retired the final two batters to record his second save of the season.

Donovan is no stranger to being in the limelight of “big games”. Jeff ended his Warhawk football career last December by leading the Hawks to the 2009 NCAA Division III football championship. The All-American quarterback also garnered 2009 WIAC Player of the Year honors.

After the game, Donovan talked about “wanting the ball” for Saturday’s championship game.

“I really do want to pitch in a situation like that - when the pressures on. I want to be in control out there,” Donovan tells Voices Eye on Baseball Blog. “I was just really excited going into the start and I knew they’d leave me out there for 130 pitches if I was effective.”

The Warhawks will take a 38 & 5 record into next week’s NCAA Division III Midwest Regional at Prucha Field at Jim Miller Stadium. Play will begin Wednesday. The 2010 tournament pairings will be announced on Monday morning.