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Pointers Capture
Third Straight WIAC Tournament
For the sixth time in nine
years, UW-Stevens Point is the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
baseball tournament champion, but the Pointers took a much easier route to
this year's crown by going undefeated through the double-elimination event.
The Pointers finished off a
perfect weekend at Witter Field in Wisconsin Rapids with a 9-2 win over
UW-Oshkosh in Saturday's title game to earn the conference's automatic berth
to the NCAA Division III tournament. Pairings and the regional site will be
announced early Monday morning.
UW-Stevens Point will take a
28-14 record and seven-game winning streak into the tournament. The Pointers
went 3-0 in the WIAC tournament for just the second time since the
tournament went to a double-elimination format in 2001. UW-Stevens Point
also finished 3-0 in 2002. The Pointers won titles after losses in 2001,
2005 and 2006.
Mike Thrun earned the victory
in the title game for the second straight year, pitching eight strong
innings while allowing five hits and two runs. He finished with five
strikeouts, including all three batters in the eighth inning. Travis Kempf
recorded the final three outs of the game.
The Pointers outhit the Titans
17-5, but didn't score until Stewart Larsen had a run-scoring single in the
fourth. UW-Stevens Point put up four runs in the fifth as the Titans had
three wild pitches and Adam Evanoff, Brandon Scheidler and Larsen all
delivered run-scoring singles.
UW-Oshkosh's Bryan Schwebke
answered with a solo homer in the sixth, but the Pointers came back with a
run in the bottom of the inning on a run-scoring double by Tim Schlosser.
Brad Archambeau homered to lead off the eighth and Jordan Zimmermann and
Scheidler each added run-scoring singles to finish the scoring.
Archambeau, Schlosser and
Scheidler each had three hits for the Pointers, who won three of five
meetings over the Titans this year. UW-Oshkosh is now 32-10 and will await a
possible at-large berth to the NCAA Division III tournament.
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