UW-Stout 10, UW-La Crosse 4

UW-La Crosse 14, UW-Stout 2 (7 innings)

La Crosse, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team earned a doubleheader split with UW-Stout Sunday afternoon at North Campus Field. The Blue Devils took the opener, 10-4, but the Eagles came back to win the nightcap, 14-2 in seven innings. UW-L is now 11-4 overall and 3-1 in the WIAC while UW-Stout is 4-10 overall and 1-3 in the conference.

In the opener, UW-Stout tallied five times in the top of the fourth to take a 5-0 lead. Matt Guida had a two-run double for the Blue Devils while Jon Schoch had an RBI double and Jake Duske an RBI single. Duske added another run-scoring single in the top of the sixth to give UW-Stout a 6-0 lead before UW-L scored its first run on Travis Martin's fielder's choice to knock in Zach Harazin.

Each team scored three runs in the eighth. Duske had his third RBI single for the Blue Devils. Cole Cefalu hit a solo home run for the Eagles while Harazin and Brett Jacobson added RBI singles. Guida finished the scoring with an RBI single in the ninth for UW-Stout.

Eight of nine starters had at least one hit for the Blue Devils in the opener, including Duske who finished 4-for-4 with a run scored and three RBI. Guida was 3-for-5 with two runs and three RBI while Schoch scored three times.

Dan Britts (1-1) earned the win, pitching 7.0 innings, allowing eight hits, four runs and two walks while striking out six.

Corey Geary finished 3-for-4 with a run scored for UW-L while Jay Fanta, Harazin and Jacobson each had two hits. Fanta extended his hitting streak to 27 games.

Garrett Scray (2-1) took the loss for the Eagles, going 8.0 innings, allowing 12 hits, nine runs (six earned) and one walk with three strikeouts.

In the nightcap, UW-L took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first as Cefalu scored on Fanta's sacrifice fly. UW-Stout tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the third on Brian Giebel's two-out solo home run, but UW-L came right back to take a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the inning. Fanta extended his hitting streak to 28 games with a two-out single. He moved to second on a wild pitch and to third on a balk and then scored on Matt Trocke's infield single.

Each team scored a run in the fourth with Jesse Brockman hitting an RBI single for the Blue Devils and Matt Johnson hitting a two-out run-scoring double for the Eagles.

UW-L then scored eight runs with two outs in the bottom of the fifth to take an 11-2 lead. The inning was highlighted by two-run singles from Adam Cordova and Fanta, who had two singles in the inning. Cefalu and Trocke each had RBI singles in the fifth while Jacobson hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded.

Johnson finished the scoring for UW-L with a three-run home run in the sixth inning.

Fanta was 3-for-3 with three RBI while Trocke finished 3-for-4 with two RBI in the second game. Cefalu and Johnson each went 2-for-4 with two runs. Johnson aldo had four RBI.

Tim Verthein (2-0) earned the win, pitching 7.0 innings, allowing seven hits and two runs while striking out four.

Guida was 2-for-3 with a run scored for UW-Stout. Brad Kohn (0-2) suffered the loss, going 4.2 innings, allowing nine hits, 11 runs (five earned) and three walks.

UW-L returns to action Saturday, April 9 at UW-Oshkosh at noon.