Box Score McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Seven quality innings from Luke Watson (Appleton, WI/Xavier) and strong hitting and fielding from Riley Spetz (Sturgeon Bay, WI/Sevastopol) led the fourth-seeded UW-Stevens Point baseball team to a 5-2 victory over second-seeded Cal Lutheran in the second game of the McMinnville Regional on Thursday night at Roy Helser Field at Jim Wright Stadium.
 
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Watson improved to 8-1 on the season with seven innings of one-run ball against the Kingsmen (35-9).  Spetz led the Pointers (31-11) offense by going 3-for-4 with two runs and also made three highlight defensive plays at shortstop. The five runs scored by UWSP are the most of any team at the regional through six games and the three-run margin of victory is tied for the largest with Linfield's 4-1 win over LeTourneau earlier in the day.
 
The win is the sixth straight in regional play for UW-Stevens Point over the last two seasons and ended Cal Lutheran's 13-game winning streak. The Pointers advance to face defending national champion, top-seed and host Linfield, who topped UWSP 5-3 in last season's Division III World Series, at noon PDT on Friday in a matchup of the two 2-0 teams. The Kingsmen play LeTourneau in an elimination game following the UWSP-Linfield game, as four teams remain alive in the regional.
 
UW-Stevens Point led 3-1 after seven innings but Cal Lutheran mounted a rally in the top of the eighth. The Kingsmen had runners on the corners with nobody out after a single by Jake Peterson and an error. Collin Crowl then drove in a run on a fielder's choice to bring Cal Lutheran within a run at 3-2.
 
Later in the inning, the Kingsmen had a runner on second and two outs when the Pointers brought in JP Feyereisen (River Falls, WI/River Falls) for Nick Prebelski (Green Bay, WI/Notre Dame), who relieved Watson after seven innings. Spetz got UWSP out of the inning with a leaping catch on a popup to end the rally. Feyereisen closed the door with a four-out save for his second save in as many nights.
 
Cal Lutheran scored an early run off Watson in the top of the first inning when Ramsey Abushala doubled in Justin Cana, who started the inning with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice. After that, Watson held the Kingsmen scoreless for six innings and stranded two runners in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings, including escaping jam with runners on second and third and one out in the third.
 
UW-Stevens Point immediately responded in the bottom of the first by scoring two runs of its own off Cal Lutheran starter Tyler Hebda, who took the loss. Spetz and Jimmy Coady (La Crosse, WI/Aquinas) started the game with back-to-back singles, leaving runners at the corners. Kyle McHugh (Polonia, WI/Rosholt) made it three straight singles, scoring Spetz and moving Coady to third. Coady then scored on a fielder's choice by Brandon Kranz (Waukesha, WI/West).
 
The Pointers added a run in the fifth on a groundout by Coady that scored Barnes after the left fielder led off the inning with a single and moved up on a sacrifice bunt and a single by Spetz.
 
UW-Stevens Point gave Feyereisen breathing room for the ninth inning with two runs in the bottom of the eighth on a fielder's choice groundout by McHugh that scored Spetz and a delayed double-steal of home by pinch runner Ben Gerber (Stoughton, WI/Stoughton). Feyereisen allowed a leadoff single before retiring the next three batters to keep UWSP unbeaten at the regional.