WHITEWATER, Wis. – UW-Stevens Point used a pair of three-run innings on Friday evening and freshman Ben Messenger (Green Bay, WI/Bay Port) pitched his longest outing of the season as the UW-Stevens Point baseball team advanced to the final day of the 2013 NCAA Division III Midwest Regional, defeating St. Scholastica 8-2.

Box Score

The Pointers (38-9), 3-0 in the regional tournament, will face Case Western Reserve (29-13) on Saturday, May 18 at 12 p.m. Should UWSP falter in the opener, a winner-take-all game will take place between the two teams at 3 p.m.

UWSP took a 1-0 lead in the first and tacked on another run in the third inning, pushing in front 2-0.
Scholastica answered in the fourth, plating a run to cut the Pointers lead in half, 2-1.

The score remained 2-1 until the Pointers put up three runs on the board in the seventh, as Jimmy Coady (La Crosse, WI/Aquinas) plated a pair of runs and Riley Spetz (Sturgeon Bay, WI/Sevastopol) drove in another, putting UWSP in front 5-1.

St. Scholastica scored one run in the eighth and loaded the bases with two outs, but Tyler Flood (Madison, WI/La Follette) struck Parker Olson swinging to end the threat.

The Pointers answered in the home half of the eighth, plating three more runs. Ryan Schilter (West Bend, WI/West) drove in a run with a double and Coady singled up the middle, scoring Schilter and then came around to score on a pair of Saints' errors.

In the ninth, Nick Prebelski (Green Bay, WI/Notre Dame) shut the door, sealing the UWSP victory.

Coady finished the day 4-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs scored.

Messenger picked up his fifth win of the year, going 7.2 innings, allowing six hits, two earned runs, and struck out four.