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Big First Innings Put Pointers in Regional
Final
As it turned out, the top of the first inning was
all the UW-Stevens Point baseball team needed on Saturday in a pair of wins
at the NCAA Division III regional in Whitewater.
The Pointers scored seven runs in the top of the
first of an 18-3 win over St. Scholastica and then tallied six times in the
opening inning in a 13-5 victory over UW-Whitewater. The two wins put the
Pointers in a rematch with UW-Whitewater on Sunday at noon with the winner
earning a spot in the Division III World Series in Appleton.
The two wins also gave the Pointers a school
record for victories in a season as they improved to 38-10 for the year.
UW-Whitewater is now 40-7 overall with five of its losses coming to
UW-Stevens Point as the teams met for the eighth time in the last 16 days.
Pointers� shortstop Jake Frombach led off the
victory over the Warhawks by homering on the first pitch of the game. Tim
Schlosser singled, Ryan Jones doubled and Steve Wiczek reached on an error
to chase starter Andrew Keller after four batters. Reliever Gregg Riek came
on to record a strikeout before Matt Polomis reached on an error and Nat
Richter blasted a three-run homer for a 6-0 lead and sending Riek out of the
game.
UW-Whitewater closed to within 6-3 in the fourth
inning on a run-scoring double by Jeff Newcomer, but the Pointers countered
with three runs in the fifth as Frombach had a run-scoring single and Ryan
Jones ripped an RBI double for a 9-3 lead.
The Warhawks inched to within 10-5 in the seventh
on a two-run homer by Eric Baldwin, but Richter added a run-scoring single
in the eighth and Jones hit a towering two-run homer in the ninth. It was
Jones� 50th career round-tripper, making him the eighth player in Division
III history to reach the milestone.
Jones was four-for-six and Frombach was
four-for-five to lead the Pointers. Richter was three-for-four with five
RBI�s and had several outstanding defensive plays at second base, including
a leaping grab of a liner by Ross Klawitter for an inning-ending double play
in the seventh.
J.C. Reinke came back after pitching four innings
on Thursday to work six and one-third innings and pick up the win. Matt
Mehne and Kevin Pankow closed out the victory in relief.
In the opener, the Pointers scored seven runs on
three hits in the first and Jordan Zimmermann allowed only five hits and no
earned runs over eight innings for the win. Wiczek drilled a three-run homer
in the first inning and, after three straight walks, Ben Warwick hit a deep
fly ball that was dropped. Matt Polomis was hung up between third and home,
but was awarded home on interference. Joel Hojnacki added a run-scoring
single and Frombach had a sacrifice fly for a 7-0 lead as the Pointers
scored more runs in the inning than their first two tournament games
combined.
In fact, UW-Stevens Point totaled 31 runs and 33
hits in the two games after combining for five runs and 12 hits in its first
two tournament games.
Wiczek homered again in the ninth inning and then
singled in the second game to give him 85 hits for the season, eclipsing the
Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference single-season record held by
Tim Jorgenson of UW-Oshkosh in 1995. Chuck Brehm followed with another home
run and finished three-for-four as the Pointers now have 92 home runs for
the season. |
