Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 MENOMONIE, Wis. – Kyle McHugh (Polonia, WI/Rosholt) hit three home runs and drove in eight as the 15th-ranked UW-Stevens Point baseball team clinched a spot in the four-team Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Championship by sweeping UW-Stout by scores of 11-6 and 18-6 on Saturday afternoon at Nelson Field.
 
No. 15 UW-Stevens Point 11, UW-Stout 6 | Box
 
McHugh was 4-for-5 with a home run, two doubles, two runs and three RBI in the opener as UW-Stevens Point (26-9, 12-8 WIAC). UW-Stout (20-17, 10-12 WIAC) led 2-1 after four innings but the Pointers scored 10 runs over a four-inning stretch to take command.
 
McHugh started the day with a solo home run in the first but the Blue Devils responded with runs off of JP Feyereisen (River Falls, WI/River Falls) in the third and fourth. Feyereisen was credited with his fifth win of the season after giving up six runs in seven innings.
 
The Pointers took the lead for good in the top of the fifth by scoring three times in the frame. After Jimmy Coady (La Crosse, WI/Aquinas) drove in a run with a groundout, McHugh and Brandon Kranz (Waukesha, WI/West) each plated runs with doubles.
 
UW-Stevens Point added three more in the sixth on a pair of home runs. Cody Hanke (Marathon, WI/Marathon)'s two-run home run accounted for two of his three RBI in the game and Harry Steldt (West Bend, WI/West) made it back-to-back home runs with a solo shot of his own, his second of the season, to make it 7-3. Hanke's home run was his seventh.
 
After Charlie Meyer's three-run home run in the seventh brought UW-Stout within one, the Pointers gave reliever Nick Prebelski (Green Bay, WI/Notre Dame) some breathing room with a four-run eighth. Hanke, Riley Spetz (Sturgeon Bay, WI/Sevastopol), Coady and McHugh all had run-scoring hits in the frame and Prebelski recorded the final six outs of the win.
 
No. 15 UW-Stevens Point 18, UW-Stout 6 | Box
 
McHugh hit two of UW-Stevens Point's five home runs in game two and the Pointers scored 10 runs in the final three innings to run away with the win.
 
Like game one, McHugh belted a first-inning solo home run but the lead was quickly erased on Brady Burzynski's leadoff home run off Cam Seidl (Appleton, WI/Fox Valley Lutheran). After that, Seidl retired 12 hitters in a row and went on to win his sixth game of the year after pitching eight innings and striking out 10.
 
The Pointers gave Seidl early run support by scoring three in the second and three more in the third. Bobby Gregorich (Plover, WI/SPASH) hit his third long ball of the season, a two-run shot in the second, and McHugh homered for the second straight at-bat and third time on the day in the third. Spetz, Taylor Carlson (Madison, WI/LaFollette) and Hanke also tallied run-scoring hits early.
 
The Blue Devils got within three at 7-4 after five innings by scoring three in the fifth. Leading 9-4 in the seventh, Coady burst the game wide open with a grand slam, scoring Spetz, Casey Barnes (Mequon, WI/Homestead) and Hanke.
 
UW-Stout's Ryan Freitag got two back with a two-run home run in the eight but the Pointers plated five in the ninth to finish with a season-high 18 runs. McHugh drove in his seventh and eighth runs of the day with a double, his sixth extra-base hit of the day before Kranz ended the scoring with a two-run home run.
 
Spetz scored three times in game two and twice in game one, extending his streak to eight straight games with at least one run scored. McHugh has now driven in a run or more in 10 straight games and the junior has 23 RBI over that stretch.
 
The Pointers finish their regular season schedule by closing out a four-game weekend against the Blue Devils on Sunday, May 4. First pitch is at noon at Nelson Field.