BB: WIAC: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[badgerwarhawk]

Chicago Cubs, wipe the sleep out of your eyes Bill.

Kevin Tomasiewicz is with the St Lucie Mets this season.  It's a Class A affiliate.

[balco]

yikes what an ugly day for whitewater baseball today against point. i'm hoping that jacobson can steal us a victory tomorrow if he's on the mound.

[OshDude]

In a battle of WIAC unbeatens, Oshkosh finished off a sweep of Lax today.

Lax came in averaging about 10 runs per game but scored only seven total runs in the four games.

Oshkosh did just enough on offense in all four games. Nothing spectacular, that's for sure. But UWO had someone different step up in every game.

Yesterday it was the freshman No. 9 hitter, Kyle Kannenberg, who hit a walkoff HR, despite going to the plate with two extra base hits and batting about .180 on the season.

Today it was another frosh, shortstop Derek Leighton, who provided the spark with three bunt hits and some great plays in the field. Freshman catcher Cory Hastings drove in the game-four winner in the bottom of the 10th.

Pitchers Adam Roos, Adam Bretl, Brad Bolton, Jeremy Rubens and Brian Gerl were all very, very sharp. All except the first inning today by Rubens, another freshman, were what I would call fairly dominant. Bretl and Bolton started and won. Gerl won two in relief and saved another.

It's early, but just like the good old days, Oshkosh is back in the WIAC driver's seat at 8-0.

[badgerwarhawk]

WARHAWKS get a split with Point winning both games today 5-4, 8-6.

Mike Jacobson went the distance in game one surrendering 10 hits to up his record to 4-0 on the season.  After trailing 3-0 Point scored a pair of runs in the sixth and seventh to take the lead 4-3 but Jeff Donovan's  two strike, two out, two run home run in the top of the ninth put the WARHAWKS on top for good.

Aaron Dott pitched five and 2/3 innings of relief to get the win in game two.  Trailing 8-4 Point scored single runs in the 7th and 9th to close the gap to two runs before Dott K'd the final hitter.  Greg Harder led WW hitters going 4 for 5 while Tom Donovan and Billy Johnson each had two hits and combined for 5 RBI to pace.

We really needed these two to avoid digging too deep a hole to start the season.   Next up, the Blue Devil at Procha Field.   

[cubs]

Freshman catcher Cory Hastings drove in the game-four winner in the bottom of the 10th.

He also had a 2-run single in Game three, which proved to be the game winner in a 2-1 UWO victory.

Gerl won two in relief and saved another.

What is impressive to me, is that in 8 conference games, Gerl has appeared in 7 of them, earning 3 wins and 3 saves.  Coach Lechnir has been known to ride his starters in the past, but it appears this season he has a valuable arm in Gerl that is able to bounce back in a hurry, and he isn't afraid to go to him.  He lost a game early on their Spring Trip to Saint Norbert in the 9th inning 3-2, but since then he has been lights out giving up 2 ER in 29 IP.

[badgerwarhawk]

The weather's looking really bad for this weekend though it's suppose to clear up by Monday if the field isn't too wet to play. 

This weather is simply miserable and looks like it's going to continue to mess up the scheduling.

[WLCALUM83]

Oshkosh 6, Platteville 5, End of 5th inning in Game 1 as I post.

[WLCALUM83]

Oshkosh 11, Platteville 5, Final, Game 1.

Titans' Gerl came in to pitch the last 3 innings and retired all but one of the batters he faced.
R Demmin also pitched for this game. It's a wonder this one wasn't more of a slugfest than it apparently started out to be.

[razor_ramone]

So did coach Brezowitz and the grounds crew work their magic and get the fields ready to play agin. I know on Thursday that was his bigest worry. Of course their is nothing you can do about the weather this is Wisconsin.

[cubs]

Updated WIAC Standings (Through 4/16)
Oshkosh 11-1
Stevens Point 9-2
Whitewater 5-3
La Crosse 4-4
Stout 4-8
Platteville 1-6
Superior 1-11

Looking at the boxscores, here are a few things that jumped out....

-UWSP is hitting the ball pretty well right now, however their pitching isn't looking too hot.  Zielke, Nix, Kempf, Hopkins and Hemstead all were hit around pretty hard this weekend by a "light" hitting Superior squad.  Each one of them gave up 4 or more runs, with Zielke (4 R in 5 IP) and Hemstead (6 R in 6 IP) being the only two to throw at least 5 innings.

-UWO looks to be the exact opposite.  Their pitching continues to impress (47 runs allowed in 12 WIAC games, including 21 runs in the last 8 WIAC games) however their bats are about as lively as a mosquito in the dead of winter.

[badgerwarhawk]

Yes, Coach Brez and crew worked their magic.  The field looked great.  They also did a great job on the softball diamonds which hosted a doublehitter vs Eau Claire today. 

WARHAWKS win 3 of 4 from Stout, 8-1, 3-7, 6-5 and 9-2.   

Trailing 1-0 WW plated 4 in the 4th and 2 in each the 6th and 8th innings to win Saturday's opener going away.  Bill Gorman led the offense with 4 RBIs on 2x3 at the plate.  Tom Corcoran added 2 RBIs on 3x5 hitting.  A trio of pitchers, Jay Grutzmacher, Adam Dominick and Randy Johnson, were solid on the mound surrendering 7 hits combined.  Dominick got the win with 4 innings of relief.

Game two started fast as the two teams hit solo home runs in their first inning but Stout got another in the fourth and then four in the fifth to go up 6-1.  WW cut the lead to 6-3 but Stout added another for the final.  Mike Jacobson took his first loss of the season as the junior struggled with his control and pitched from behind often. 

The WARHAWKS scored the first run in game three  on a wild pitch in the first and made it stand until Stout got five hits and plated 4 runs in the fourth to take the lead.  WW got two back in the fifth but Stout scored another in the sixth and took the 5-3 lead into the eighth inning.  But WW plated two in the bottom of the eighth and got the game winner on a Jordan Stine double in their ninth.  Relievers Kale Olson and Kevin Harves pitched the final three innings with Harves getting the win by retiring the 3, 4 and 5 hitters for Stout on five pitches to end the game.  Stine went 3x4 with 2. Gorman added two hits and scored the winning run.  Jason Rutz also had two hits.

WHITEWATER plated five runs in the third with five hits highlighted by a grand slam home run by Kevin Zalnis.  Stout got on the board in the fourth but WW added two in their at bat and another in the sixth before Stout got an unearned one in the ninth.  Tony Wong evened his season record at 2-2 with 12 Ks in six innings on the mound.  Tom Corcoran paced the offense going 3x4 with 3 RBIs while Stine and Jeff Donovan each had two hits. 

Oskhosh on Wednesday.

Flash, the Donovans are brothers.

[razor_ramone]

It looks a lil wet in whitewater today. I am wondering if coach Brez and his grounds crew will work their magic again and have the baseball field ready to go for the games today. If nothing else Whitewater should hire coach Brez as head gorundskeeper. As it doesn't matter how much it rains or snows the fields at Whitewater are always ready to go.

[cubs]

From Point.....
Point knocks off Stout 1-0 in the opener behind a CG two hitter from Jordan Zimmerman.  He struck out 11 while walking four.  Point scored their only run (unearned) in the 5th thanks to dropped fly ball by the RF with two outs.  Ben Warwick followed with a single (one of only 3 Point hits) to drive in the eventual game winner.

Anyone have an update from Whitewater?  I can't get connected on the radio station on the UWO website.  It says they are broadcasting the game....

[badgerwarhawk]

Oshkosh took both games unless WW rallied from a 10-1 deficit in their last two at bats.    Game one went 7-3 to the Titan when they broke a 3-3 tie with four runs after two were out in their final at bat. 

[Just Bill]

Point commits 6 errors, gives up 10 unearned runs and loses to Stout 13-10 in Game 2.   I think that says all I can say.

P.S.  Stout gave up 4 unearned runs on three errors.  A masterpiece this was not.