After falling in the opening round of the NCAA Division III tournament to St. Scholastica the past two years, UW-Stevens Point enacted revenge against the Saints on Wednesday with an 11-3 victory in the 2007 opener at Witter Field in Wisconsin Rapids.

Winning pitcher Jordan Zimmermann (Auburndale/Auburndale) had 11 strikeouts and no walks in eight innings and hit a leadoff home run to spark a six-run seventh inning and break a 3-3 tie as the top-seeded Pointers improved to 29-14 for the season. Sixth-seeded St. Scholastica had a six-game winning streak snapped and fell to 36-7 for the year. Nine of the Pointers' 11 runs were unearned as the Saints committed a season-high six errors.

UW-Stevens Point will now play Thursday at 3:30 p.m. and face the loser of Wednesday's game between Ripon and St. Olaf. St. Scholastica will play either UW-Oshkosh or St. Thomas in an elimination game on Thursday at noon.

The Pointers scored single runs in each of the first three innings, but left five runners on base, including four in scoring position. St. Scholastica had a solo home run by Kyle Wojtysiak in the third and tied the game on a two-run blast by Mike Lewis in the fourth.

Zimmermann took over from that point, retiring his final 13 batters faced before departing after eight innings. The two-time Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference pitcher of the year allowed five hits in improving to 8-0 for the season.

St. Scholastica starter Mark Moriarty, who beat Zimmermann and the Pointers 4-3 in last year's NCAA tournament opener, escaped another jam when UW-Stevens Point had runners on second and third with one out in the fifth. He finished with seven strikeouts and allowed six hits over five innings before giving way to Adian Kummet in the sixth.

Kummet retired the side in the sixth and allowed the home run to Zimmermann in the seventh before the Saints' defense collapsed. The Pointers scored five more runs on just one hit and two errors in the inning. Joel Hojnacki (Plover/SPASH) drove in a run on a fielder's choice when Adam Evanoff (Plover/SPASH) beat a throw home from shortstop. Justin Bushong (Rhinelander/Rhinelander) then laid down a squeeze bunt that was dropped at first base and allowed two runs to score for a 7-3 lead.

Stewart Larsen (Sturgeon Bay/Sturgeon Bay) and Ben Warwick (Green Bay/Bay Port) added run-scoring singles in the Pointers' eighth, taking advantage of another Saints' error for two more unearned runs.

Brandon Scheidler (Chippewa Falls/McDonell) finished four-for-five and Evanoff was two-for-four for the Pointers, who have now won eight straight games. Brandon Swartz was two-for-four for St. Scholastica, which surrendered a season-high run total.