AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The No. 10-ranked UW-Stevens Point baseball team erupted for six runs in the fifth inning and went on to pick up its first win of the season, topping Benedictine (Ill.) 11-4 on Friday.

Box Score

Benedictine (0-1) got out to a 2-0 lead after two innings and continued to hold the two-run lead until UW-Stevens Point (1-1) got its offense going, scoring six runs on four hits in the fifth. The Pointers went on to score five runs in the final two innings to pull away.

The Eagles retired the first two UWSP hitters in the top of the fifth but the next seven batters reached base safely. After two hit batsmen and a walk filled the bases, Jimmy Coady (La Crosse, WI/Aquinas) singled home two runs to get the Pointers on the board.

Cody Hanke (Marathon, WI/Marathon) and Taylor Carlson (Madison, WI/LaFollette) followed with run-scoring singles before Bobby Gregorich (Plover, WI/SPASH) plated two runs with a double to right. Gregorich added another two-run double in the ninth to complete a four-RBI day.

UW-Stevens Point's 3-7 hitters combined to go 12-for-21 (.571) in the game with nine runs and eight RBI. Coady and Carlson each had three hits, while Kyle McHugh (Polonia, WI/Rosholt), Hanke and Gregorich each had two.

Kody McHugh (Mosinee, WI/Mosinee) earned the first win of his career after allowing three runs, two earned, in six innings of work. McHugh struck out six batters in his second collegiate start.

Freshman Heinrich Walder (Rosholt, WI/Rosholt) replaced McHugh and worked two perfect innings in relief, before Ryan Williams (Stevens Point, WI/SPASH) tossed the ninth.

UW-Stevens Point plays a doubleheader against Anderson (Ind.), beginning at 3:30 p.m. EST on Saturday, March 14.