One big inning prevented the UW-Stevens Point baseball team from a sweep of Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opponents on Wednesday in Port Charlotte, Fla.

After rolling past St. Thomas 8-1 in the opening game, the Pointers lost to Bethel 7-4 as the Royals scored all seven of their runs in the seventh inning. UW-Stevens Point is now 4-3 on its Florida trip and 6-3 overall.

St. Thomas scored in the opening inning against the Pointers, but UW-Stevens Point responded with four runs in the second and eventually pulled away from the Tommies. Jordan Zimmermann (Auburndale/Auburndale) pitched seven innings, allowing no earned runs and five hits with six strikeouts in his first start of the year for the Pointers.

Brandon Scheidler (Chippewa Falls/McDonell) had a run-scoring triple in the second inning and added an RBI single in the third while finishing three-for-five. Justin Bushong (Rhinelander/Rhinelander) highlighted the four-run inning with a two-run double. Tim Schlosser (Oconomowoc/Oconomowoc) added a pinch-hit RBI double in the eighth and Ryan Byrnes (Beaver Dam/Beaver Dam) hit his second triple of the game to drive in a run in the ninth.

Travis Kempf (Kewaskum/Kewaskum) pitched six strong innings in the second game and took a 1-0 lead into the seventh when Bethel took advantage of several mistakes from the Pointers' defense for its one big inning. The Royals had five of their eight hits in the frame and scored five runs after a two-out error.

The Pointers rallied with two runs in the bottom of the seventh on a two-run single by Scheidler and scored another in the eighth on a base hit by Brad Archambeau (Watertown/Watertown). UW-Stevens Point had nine hits and Bethel had four errors, but the Pointers left 13 runners on base, including nine in scoring position. The Pointers had runners on second and third base with less than two outs in three different innings and failed to score each time.