Warhawks edge St. Thomas 3-2 in first round NCAA Regional action

The UW-Whitewater Warhawk baseball team defeated the University of Saint Thomas 3-2 in the second game of the Whitewater Regional of the NCAA III Baseball Championship Tournament Wednesday afternoon on Prucha Field at Jim Miller Stadium in Whitewater.

The Warhawks took an early 1-nothing lead on Rob Coe’s RBI single in the bottom of the first. The Tommies quickly tied the game combining two hits and a walk with a fielder's choice in the second.

UWW head coach decided he was going to pitch game-one by committee. Jeff Donovan went the first three innings giving up the one run on three hits while striking out five UST batters in just three innings on the mound.

Riley Tincher came on in the fourth for the Hawks. The senior lefthander from Oregon, Wisconsin was going to go on to have a big day but it didn’t start that way. Taylor Rahm, the first UST to face Tincher, drilled a lead-off home run to left just over the outstretched glove of Matt Beyer at the fence.

The resilient Warhawks got the run back in the bottom of the fourth inning on Dylan Friend’s RBI single to knot the game up again at 2-2.

UW-W's Jeff Donovan led off the bottom of the sixth with a double, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored the winning run on Matt Beyer's sacrifice fly to left.

(In the adjacent photo - Jeff Donovan is greeted at home plate by teammate Dylan Friend after scoring what proved to be the game-winning run in the UWW 6th inning. The senior scored on Matt Beyer's sac fly to left field - Tom Pattison photo)

Tincher worked four innings to pick up his 10th win of the season against 4 losses.

Eric Schmitz pitched a scoreless 8th and Rob Coe earned the save by pitching a 1-2-3 9th inning for his second save of the season.
Zach Frank, 3-1, started and went six innings to take the loss for UST. Frank and reliever Mark Ulrich combined to allow just four hits and two walks.

UW-W, 33-11, will play at 4:00 Thursday, and St. Thomas, 27-17, will face Aurora University, 30-13, at 10:00 Thursday.

- Much more to come
Voice