Warhawks look to continue its hitting success in 2011

When you analyze why the UW-Whitewater baseball team has captured eight out of the last nine WIAC regular season championships, being able to hit the baseball has been a major factor. Whitewater has finished No. 1 in the conference in hitting five of the last six seasons.

The Warhawks are off to a quick start at the plate again this year. Entering Thursday afternoon’s home opening doubleheader vs. Ripon College the Warhawks are hitting .306 as a team and the top half of the batting order has been lethal.

Dan Putnam and Rob Coe are ranked 1 & 2 in the WIAC coming off a 5 & 2 mark in its southern spring game.

Putnam is hitting a staggering .533 and has scored 12 runs through the first seven games of the season. The Warhawks starting rightfielder hit .356 with 6 home runs, 17 doubles, 50 RBI and stole 18 bases in 19 attempts as a junior last season.

Rob Coe is back for his senior season with a bang. The Hawks 1st Team All-WIAC catcher fed off opponent’s pitching during the Hawks spring training games. The Appleton native is hitting .478 with a home run and 14 RBI through seven games. Coe had a .380 batting average as a junior last year, a jump of nearly 100 percentage points from his sophomore season.

Jeff Donovan is coming off a huge year at the plate. The former Wauwatosa East High School athlete led the team and conference with 12 home runs, 60 runs batted in, and a .671 slugging percentage. Donovan was second in the conference with 110 total bases and 35 walks. He also added 50 runs, 58 hits, 14 doubles and was 6-8 in stolen bases. So far this season, Donovan is hitting .400 with 7 RBI in the Warhawks seven early season games.

Two other starters, Andrew Eichstaedt (LF) and Matt Meisenheimer (2B) are also hitting above .300.

Putnam, Coe, Donovan, Eichstaedt, Travis Wessels and Matt Beyer have been in the starting lineup in all seven games to date.

Since 2004, UW-Whitewater has led the conference in batting average in all but 2009. Last year’s .351 team batting average is the highest since 2005 when the Warhawks captured the NCAA Division III Championship with a .363 batting average.