WHITEWATER, Wis. – Pitching was the headline as the UW-Stevens Point baseball team (9-2, 1-1) held No. 12 UW-Whitewater (9-4, 1-1) to two runs in a doubleheader split in the league opener on Monday. The Pointers earned the game one win with a 4-0 shutout before falling in game two, 2-0.
Caleb Krommenakker (Rudolph, Wis./Lincoln) won his third game in four outings this season with 6.0 shutout frames to win game one.
Nick Carpenter (Lake Mills, Wis./Lake Mills) and
Sidney Ferry (Paw Paw, Mich./Homeschooled) completed the shutout by blanking the Warhawks over the final three frames.
In game two,
Nick Paulsen (Balsam Lake, Wis./Unity) tossed 4.1 shutout innings in the start.
Austin Syvertson (Randolph, Wis./Randolph) added 1.2 scoreless innings in relief.
Offensively,
Lucas Luedtke (River Falls, Wis./River Falls) was the lone Pointer to collect a hit in each game. He had one of the RBI in game one.
Matt Baumann (New Berlin, Wis./Eisenhower),
Bradley Comer (Rhinelander, Wis./Rhinelander),
Quin Henwood (Appleton, Wis./North) and
Kyle Finger (Clintonville, Wis./Clintonville) had two hits apiece in game one.
Game 1: UWSP 4, UWW 0
Baumann and
Aaron Simmons (Franklin, Wis./Franklin) drew back-to-back walks to begin the game. Two batters later, Comer put the Pointers ahead with an RBI single to right-center.
UWSP added another in the second after an error opened the door to a potential big inning. Baumann singled with one away and Simmons again drew a walk to load the bases.
Payton Nelson (Wausau, Wis./West) followed with a sac fly, but the Pointers could only get one run in the inning.
Nelson and Comer hit consecutive singles to begin the seventh. With one down, Luedtke doubled to right-center to plate one. Finger followed with a sac fly to make it 4-0.
Carpenter and Ferry combined to hold the Warhawks to one hit over the final three frames. Ferry tossed 2.0 with three strikeouts.
Game 2: UWSP 0, UWW 2
Jakob Boos (Littleton, Colo./Heritage) got UWSP's first hit of the game with one out in the third. Luedtke also had a one-out hit in the fifth. Both were left stranded at first.
Simmons got UWSP's lone extra-base hit of game two, a two-out double in the sixth. But the Pointers couldn't break the scoreless deadlock.
UWW finally got on the board in the seventh.
Tyler Beyer (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis./Lincoln) limited the damage to just one run in the frame and stranded the bases loaded. The Warhawks added another single tally in the eighth to complete the scoring.
Paulsen and Syvertson had two strikeouts apiece.
Nathan Krommenakker (Rudolph, Wis./Lincoln) closed the game with 0.2 hitless. He has pitched 5.2 innings this year with no hits, runs or walks allowed.
The Pointers open the home slate on Saturday (April 2) with a 12:00 p.m. doubleheader against Finlandia.
