WIAC Tournament Web site

STEVENS POINT – The 23rd-ranked UW-Stevens Point baseball team will look for its fourth consecutive Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Baseball Tournament Championship this weekend at Witter Field in Wisconsin Rapids.

The WIAC Baseball Tournament is a four-team double-elimination tournament that takes place on Friday and Saturday. There will be four games played on Friday and two, with the possibility of a third game on Saturday. The winner of the tournament receives the conference's automatic-bid to the NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament. All four teams in the field have won at least one tournament title since 1998.

The Pointers enter the tournament as a three-seed. The last time the Pointers were a three-seed was in 2004 and they lost their opening game and finished 1-2. The only time Stevens Point won the tourney when being lower than a two-seed was 2001 when they were a four seed.

Stevens Point was undefeated at home this season, 12-0, and considering that Witter Field is just approximately 20 miles away from the UW-Stevens Point campus bodes well for the Pointers.

Stevens Point (25-14; 18-6) is second in the conference in hitting this year with a .333 team batting average. The Pointers by far lead the conference with 66 home runs and with 367 runs scored. Doug Coe (Appleton/North) (Sr.-Appleton/North) is second in the conference with a .426 batting average and Brandon Scheidler (Chippewa Falls/McDonell) (Sr.-Chippewa Falls/McDonell) is right behind him with a .416 average. Coe leads the league with 13 home runs, 51 RBIs, a .540 on-base percentage, and a .806 slugging percentage. Scheidler leads the WIAC with 62 hits and is currently on a 16-game hitting streak.

The Pointers pitching staff ranks third in the league with a 4.36 earned run average. Travis Kempf (Kewaskum/Kewaskum) (Sr.-Kewaskum) has been the team's ace this season as he is 5-0 with a 2.98 earned run average. Opponents are batting just .216 against Kempf this season, which is second-best in the conference. Mike Thrun (Franklin/Franklin) (Sr.-Franklin) has also performed well for the Pointers as he has a record of 4-3 and has won his last two decisions. Garrett Nix (Osseo/Osseo-Fairchild) (Jr.-Osseo/Osseo-Fairchild) is tied for third in the conference with seven wins and Brad Zielke (Jr.-Watertown) is second in the league with six saves. The Pointers defense will have to perform better behind the pitchers this weekend as they were just fifth in the conference this season with a .947 fielding percentage.

The Pointers will face arch-rival No. 10-ranked UW-Oshkosh (28-7; 19-5) in the first round Friday at 1 p.m. The Titans and the Pointers have had some bad blood this season as the Titans took three out of the four in the season series. The Titans rank third in the league with a .332 batting average and fourth in pitching with a 4.58 earned run average. However, Oshkosh doesn't beat themselves as it led the WIAC with a .965 fielding percentage.

Brad Demmin is seventh in the conference with a .384 batting average, is fourth with 12 doubles, is second with five triples, and is third with 44 RBIs. Jeremy Rubens has been light's out on the mound as he has a record of 9-1 with a league-low 2.06 earned run average. Rubens has been used a lot this season as he lead the conference with 74.1 innings pitched and had four complete games.

The other first-round matchup features conference regular season champions and eighth-ranked UW-Whitewater against UW-La Crosse. The conference regular season title for the Warhawks is the 11th in program history and the fifth in the last six years. The Eagles are back in the WIAC postseason tournament after missing out last season.

Whitewater (33-6; 20-4) leads the conference with a .347 batting average and is second in pitching with a 3.77 earned run average. Billy Johnson leads the conference with a .446 batting average. Ben Prather is second in the WIAC with 60 hits and Kevin Zalnis is also second in the conference with 12 home runs. On the mound Adam Dominick and Aaron Dott have been the catalysts for the Warhawks. Dominick is 8-2 with a 2.65 earned run average and is tied for a conference-high 73 strikeouts. Dott is 6-0 also with a 2.65 earned run average and is third in the WIAC with 69 strikeouts. Opponents are hitting a league-low .189 off of Dott.

The Eagles (19-18; 12-12) rank fifth in the WIAC with a .298 batting average and they are sixth with a 6.91 earned run average. La Crosse is led at the plate by Storm Gram who is batting .373 and leads the conference with 48 runs scored and is tied for a league-high 15 doubles. Gram is also tied for the league lead with 16 stolen bases. On the mound Greg Gibson is 4-1 with a 4.44 earned run average and Ross Benitz is 5-5 with a 6.25 earned run average.

The tournament gets underway Friday at Witter Field in Wisconsin Rapids with the Warhawks and the Eagles starting at 10 a.m.