WATERLOO, Iowa – The top-seeded UW-Stevens Point baseball team saw its season come to an end, falling 4-2 to second-seeded Webster in the team's second game of the day at the Waterloo Regional on Saturday evening at River Front Stadium.
Box Score UW-Stevens Point (33-14) trailed 4-1 heading to the ninth inning and had the bases loaded with two outs down by two before Webster (33-13) closed the door. The Gorlocks got a strong pitching performance from Matt Goro, who worked into the ninth and allowed two runs, one of which was earned.
Trailing by three in the top of the ninth, the Pointers started their rally with a one-out triple to right center by
Cody Hanke (Marathon, WI/Marathon).
Kyle McHugh (Polonia, WI/Rosholt), the next batter, lined an RBI single to left to cut the deficit to two.
After a fly out for the second out,
Peter Strommen (Madison, WI/East) singled and
Alex Tarras (Weston, WI/D.C. Everest) reached on a fielder's choice, leaving the bases loaded for
Riley Spetz (Sturgeon Bay, WI/Sevastopol). Spetz made a bid for a double, sending one foul down the left-field line, before popping out in foul ground to third.
The loss brings an end to UW-Stevens Point's sixth 30-win season in the last seven years. The Pointers were making their 10th regional appearance in 11 seasons. An eight-man senior class ends their UWSP careers with a 133-53 (.715) record and three NCAA Tournament appearances, including a fourth-place finish in 2013.
Webster advances to face Carthage on Sunday, the final day of the regional. The Red Men will need to beat the Gorlocks twice to prevent Webster from reaching the NCAA Division III World Series in Appleton, Wis.
The Gorlocks opened the scoring in the third, scoring runs on RBI singles by Alec Bahnick and Kyle Uhrich off starter
Ben Miller (Union Grove, WI/Union Grove). Miller worked the first three innings, giving up two runs on four hits, and took just his second loss of the season (6-2).
UW-Stevens Point got on the board in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by
Ray Greco (Downers Grove, IL/North), scoring Hanke for an unearned run after Hanke moved from first to third on a stolen base and a throwing error.
Webster added a run in the sixth on a run-scoring single by Matt Wollnik and another in the eighth on a solo home run by Uhrich, his 17th of the season. Uhrich and Bahnick each had two hits, while Adam Naliwajko was 3-for-3 for Webster.
Mitch Beau (Fond du Lac, WI/St. Mary Springs) threw the final five innings in relief of Miller and surrendered two runs on seven hits. The senior walked three and struck out one to finish off an impressive senior season on the mound.
Goro held UW-Stevens Point to two runs on nine hits in 8.1 innings. The junior walked just one batter and fanned five, before giving way to Dylan Smith who recorded the final two outs for his first save of the season.
Strommen lead the Pointers' offense, going 3-for-4, while Spetz,
Jimmy Coady (La Crosse, WI/Aquinas) and Hanke each had a pair of hits.
