PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – The No. 6 UW-Stevens Point baseball team had its highest-scoring doubleheader in nearly seven years, erupting for 34 runs by sweeping UW-Platteville 19-6 and 15-5 in a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) doubleheader on Sunday afternoon at Kendall Murray Field.
 
No. 6 UW-Stevens Point 19, UW-Platteville 6 (7 inn.) | Box
 
UW-Stevens Point (19-9, 10-6 WIAC) scored the first 12 runs of the game and tallied 14 runs in a three-inning stretch in the middle of the game on its way to defeating UW-Platteville (18-10, 9-3 WIAC) 19-6 in the opener. The Pointers scored 19 runs in a game for the second time in three games, after a 19-5 win over the Pioneers in the opener on Saturday.
 
Jimmy Coady (La Crosse, WI/Aquinas) led the offensive barrage, going 3-for-4 with a career-high five runs scored and three RBI, while Cody Hanke (Marathon, WI/Marathon) was 2-for-3 with two walks, a home run, two runs and four RBI. Bobby Gregorich (Plover, WI/SPASH) reached base four of five times and scored four runs.
 
After scoring twice in the first, UW-Stevens Point scored six runs on six hits and three UW-Platteville errors in the third. Hanke's team-best seventh home run, a two-run shot, highlighted the inning.
 
The Pointers also scored four times in each of the fourth and fifth innings, sandwiched around a six-run fourth for the Pioneers. A two-run single by Brandon Kranz (Waukesha, WI/West) was the big hit of the fourth inning and Coady and Ray Greco (Downers Grove, IL/North) delivered run-scoring hits in the fifth to make it 16-6.
 
Nine UW-Stevens Point players drove in a run and nine also scored. The Pointers also swiped six bases for the third time this season, matching the team's highest total of the season.
 
Mark Kowalke (Baraboo, WI/Baraboo) threw the first 3.2 innings for UW-Stevens Point, before giving way for Alex Thompson (Tomah, WI/Tomah), who earned the win. Thompson tossed two shutout innings to lower his season ERA to 0.79 in seven appearances and is now 2-1.
 
No. 6 UW-Stevens Point 15, UW-Platteville 5 (7 inn.) | Box
 
UW-Stevens Point took an 8-1 lead after two innings only for UW-Platteville to pull within 9-5 in the fifth. However, the Pointers plated five runs in the sixth to pull away once again and take three games of the four-game weekend set.
 
Coady and Greco each homered in the first inning and drove in four runs in the win. Coady was 3-for-3 with three runs and four RBI, to finished 6-for-7 with eight runs and seven RBI on the day, while Greco's four RBI were a career-high for the freshman.
 
Coady drilled a three-run home run to start the scoring in the first and three batters later, Greco added a two-run shot for his first collegiate home run. The Pointers also scored three runs in the second, scoring on doubles by Kyle McHugh (Polonia, WI/Rosholt) and Hanke and a single by Coady.
 
George Jester and Kyle Reinhart hit solo home runs in the middle innings to help UW-Platteville get within four after five. The Pointers responded to the Pioneers' three-run fifth with five of their own in the top of the sixth.
 
UW-Stevens Point had just two hits in the sixth, both two-run singles by Greco and Hanke. The Pointers capitalized on three hit batters and a walk in the frame.
 
Riley Spetz (Sturgeon Bay, WI/Sevastopol) was 3-for-4 with four runs scored and has now reached base in all 28 games this season. Gregorich came around to score three times, while McHugh and Hanke each drove in three runs.
 
The Pointers combined to hit 0.457 (32-for-70) in the doubleheader. UW-Stevens Point's 34 runs over the two games is the team's most in a doubleheader since the 2008 team scored 42 in a twinbill at UW-Stout on April 28, 2008. The Pointers won that doubleheader by scores of 17-0 and 25-5.
 
Kody McHugh (Mosinee, WI/Mosinee) started for the Pointers and allowed one earned run in 32 innings. David VanVliet (Lowell, MI/Grand Rapids Christian) allowed just one hit and struck out three in three innings of scoreless relief to earn the first win of his college career.
 
UW-Stevens Point takes on No. 2 UW-Whitewater in a doubleheader on Tuesday, April 21 at 1 and 4 p.m. at University Field.