PENSACOLA, Fla. - The University of Wisconsin-Platteville baseball team finished on the unfavored side of two high-scoring games to wrap up its stint at the Studer's Blue Wahoo Challenge in Pensacola, Florida. On Thursday, a 7th inning rally by Carroll University (5-6) and 16-10 win kept UW-Platteville from a Carroll sweep. Birmingham Southern (13-4) then defeated the Pioneers (2-4) 15-7 on Saturday evening.
In Thursday's game, the two set of Pioneers each put up three runs in the first inning. Carroll's came by means of a pair of early doubles while UW-Platteville took advantage of a wild pitch and passed ball with bases loaded. Jordan Collin's sacrifice fly scored the tying run. Carroll tallied a run in the 2nd and then in the 4th to take a 5-3 lead, but the tides turned in the bottom of the 4th. UW-Platteville walked in its first run of the inning before a pitching change. A single to left field by Garret Gillund batted in two more runs. Grant Mullins followed the 2RBI single with an RBI single of his own. Zach McCoy batted in the fifth run of the inning off a sacrifice fly and the Pioneers finished the inning leading 8-5. Carroll added two runs off a triple in the 5th and UW-Platteville answered back with one in the 6th, but Carroll sealed the fate of the game with seven in the 7th inning and two more runs in the 8th for the 16-10 victory.
On the mound, five Pioneers teamed up with Rich Jesse Jr. suffering the loss. Parker Heidorf started out the day for the Pioneers and did not let the three early runs cripple his appearance. After the three runs scored in the 1st, Heidorf struck out swinging the final two outs of the 1st and added three more swinging and one looking for a total of six strikeouts in three innings.
Ross Krist went 2-3, was walked twice and tallied two runs. Wyatt Molitor went 2-2 in Thursday's game and tallied one run.
In Friday's matchup, the Panthers used some heavy-hitting midgame to really separate themselves from the Pioneers. UW-Platteville was first on the board with a pair of runs scored off wild pitches in the top of the 1st inning. BSU cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning off a single to center field. The Panthers then took the lead 3-2 in the second, but five hits including a homerun and 10 runs over the next three innings gave BSU the insurance they wanted. The Pioneers did have a three-run fifth inning thanks to back-to-back doubles by Jordan Collins and Wyatt Molitor to score three runs, but the Panthers still held a 13-5 lead after six innings. Each team added one run in each of the 7th and 8th innings, but the Pioneers were unable to close the gap.
At the plate, Jake Wegner led the Pioneers going 2-3 and tallied two runs batted and one run scored. On the mound, Zach Lieb suffered the loss and was relieved by a trio of Pioneers. Brady Hoppert tallied three strikeouts while walking one and allowing one hit and run.
UW-Platteville will hop on the bus and head back to Platteville for its home opener. The Pioneers will return to action on Saturday, March 26 when they open WIAC play against the UW-Stout Blue Devils with the first game of the four-game series scheduled for noon at Kendall Murray Field.
