Warhawks sweep Platteville at Jim Miller Stadium

The conference-leading UW-Whitewater baseball team took two from UW-Platteville Wednesday, 12-2 in game-one and 7-6 in 10 innings in game-two at chilly Prucha Field at James B. Miller Stadium.

GAME ONE

The UW-Whitewater baseball team rode solid pitching by Riley Tincher and a 16 hit attack to role to a 12-2 ten-run rule, seven inning win over UW-Platteville in the opener of Wednesday’s twinbill on Prucha Field at James B. Miller Stadium.

Tincher (6-2), coming off two consecutive sub-par performances, got back in his winning rhythm by pitching five solid innings giving up just two hits. Platteville scored two unearned runs off the senior lefthander in the first inning.

Rob Coe was the offensive star of the game for the Warhawks getting 4 singles in 5 at bats, 2 RBI's and 2 runs scored. Danny Putnam, Drew Eichstaedt, Jeff Donovan, and Dylan Friend all contributed 2 hits each. Friend led the way with three RBI. Putnam scored 3 times.

Justin Lambert pitched the final two innings in relief of Tincher. The sophomore from Mount Horeb didn’t give up a hit while striking out three Pioneer batters.

GAME TWO

Game-two was anything but a run-away win for U-Dub-Dub.

The Warhawks jumped out to a 5-1 lead through four innings prior to UWP storming back to tie the game at five-all in the top of the fifth.

It remained tied entering the ninth inning when Platteville’s Levi Ney gave his team a 6-5 lead with an RBI double.

Danny Putnam led off the bottom of the ninth by stroking a single and stealing second. With two outs, Platteville elected to intentionally walk Donovan, UW-W's cleanup hitter. The strategy backfired when Brent Young out of Brisbane, Australia came through with a two out single to tie the game and send it into extra innings.

Matt Beyer led off the bottom of the 10th with a base hit and promptly stole second base. With two outs Putnam, the second leading hitter in Division III was intentionally walked which brought up UW-Oshkosh transfer Drew Eichstaedt the plate knowing that a base hit would win the game.

During his at bat, Eichstaedt crashed to the ground after fouling off a pitch. UWW trainer Chad Kelsey spent several minutes determining the severity of the apparent knee injury. “Eicher” stayed in the game and on the next pitch he hit a routine ground ball back to UWP pitcher Bill Oppriecht who threw wide of first base with Beyer scoring from second with the winning run.

(In the adjacent photo -Matt Beyer (right) who just scored game-two's winning run in the 10th inning jumps into the arms of Brent Young (left) who knocked in the tying run in the for the Warhawks with two outs in the ninth inning. The photo may be a bit blurry but so was UWW's dramatic extra-inning come from behind win - Tom Pattison photo)

Matthew Roberts (2-1) picked up the win in relief of Jeff Donovan who pitched the first nine innings without a decision for the Warhawks.

Putnam, Coe and Donovan led UW-W with two hits each in the day’s nightcap.

UW-Whitewater is 23-5 overall and 13-3 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Platteville falls to 8-23 on the season and 6-14 in league play.

Whitewater will enter the weekend a game ahead of second place Stevens Point and four games ahead of third place UW-Oshkosh.

Whitewater will take the 90 minute trek up Highway 26 this weekend for a four-game weekend series at UW-Oshkosh.