WHITEWATER, Wis. – Mark Kowalke (Baraboo, WI/Baraboo) and Nick Prebelski (Green Bay, WI/Notre Dame) combined to throw a seven-hit shutout and pitched the third-seeded UW-Stevens Point baseball team to a 5-0 win over top-seeded UW-Whitewater on Saturday morning on day two of the 2015 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Baseball Championship at Prucha Field.
 
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Kowalke and Prebelski's seven-hit shutout was the first time UW-Whitewater (31-8) has been shutout in 79 games since St. Olaf blanked the Warhawks 2-0 on March 26, 2014. The shutout was the second in a row for UW-Stevens Point (30-11) at the tournament after Mitch Beau (Fond du Lac, WI/St. Mary Springs)'s three-hitter yesterday.
 
The Pointers will face the winner of an elimination game between UW-Whitewater and UW-Oshkosh, which will start at 1 p.m. The winner of that game will need to defeat UW-Stevens Point twice.
 
Kowalke improved to 5-3 this season by holding UW-Whitewater scoreless over the first 5.2 innings. The junior righthander gave up six hits and walked three with one strikeout before giving way to Nick Prebelski (Green Bay, WI/Notre Dame). Prebelski allowed just one hit and fanned four over the final 3.1 innings to record his third save of the season.
 
The Pointers scored the game's first run in the fourth inning on a bloop single off the bat of Cody Hanke (Marathon, WI/Marathon) down the left-field line, scoring Jimmy Coady (La Crosse, WI/Aquinas). UW-Stevens Point had a chance to add to the lead with the bases loaded and one out but UWW starter Colin Grove worked out of the jam.
 
UW-Stevens Point gave Kowalke more run support in the sixth, scoring four times to take a 5-0 lead. Taylor Carlson (Madison, WI/La Follette) led off the inning with a triple off the scoreboard in right field and came around to score two batters later on a single up the middle by Kyle McHugh (Polonia, WI/Rosholt).
 
After a wild pitch moved McHugh to second, Mitch Beau (Fond du Lac, WI/St. Mary Springs) delivered a RBI single to center, scoring McHugh. Two batters later, Riley Spetz (Sturgeon Bay, WI/Sevastopol) knocked a two-out, two-run double down the left-field line that completed the scoring and gave the Pointers the 5-0 lead.
 
UW-Whitewater had chances to score but stranded 10 runners in the game. The Warhawks had the bases loaded with two outs in the third but Kowalke got Mike Mierow to line out to Ray Greco (Downers Grove, IL/North) at second. UW-Whitewater also had two runners on in the second and sixth but could not capitalize.
 
Spetz, Carlson and Beau each had two hits in the game for UW-Stevens Point, while Nick Kuhlmann, Adam Gregory and Daytona Bryden each had two hits for UW-Whitewater. The pair of hits mean Spetz has now reached base safely in 46 games in a row going back to last season.
 
UW-Stevens Point got eight hits and five runs off Grove in six innings to hand the lefty his second loss of the season. John Olejniczak and Heath Renz combined to give up just one hit and strike out five in three scoreless innings of relief.
 
The 30-win season is the sixth in the last seven years for UW-Stevens Point.