inters, playing in less than ideal weather conditions and a culmination of inconsistent fundamental baseball led to the demise of the Pioneer’s historic 14-game win streak.
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville dropped arguably their most important series of the season to UW-Stevens Point, 3-1.
“The biggest difference between the three wins they had and the one we had was walks and hit-by-pitches,” head coach Eric Frese said. “Their pitchers did a way better job of throwing the ball over the plate than ours did.”
On April 18 the Pioneers dropped their first contest 19-5. The Pointers gave up eight hits compared to the Pioneers’ pitchers who allowed 18, which resulted in 19 runs, the most UW-Platteville had given up all year.
“The weather definitely had an effect on that, with the wind blowing,” senior relief pitcher Trevor Hall said. “We left the ball high in a lot of the games. We have to work on pitching downhill again to where we were before this series.”
The Pioneers pulled out a victory in the second contest with an 11-inning, come-from-behind win, 7-6.
Junior infielder Casey Schroeder brought in two of the Pioneer’s six runs with a homer in the bottom of the third inning. Schroeder leads the team in on-base percentage at .480, 23 walks and tied with another team member with 27 runs.
“They’ve got one of the best pitching staffs in the conference other than Whitewater,” Schroeder said. “You can’t make mistakes against these men because they are going to take advantage of them.”
The Pioneers committed 13 errors over the course of the four-game weekend for an average of 3.25 errors per game.
Prior to the series, the Pioneers were 6-0 and No. 1 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. They were coming off a 14-game winning streak with an overall record of 17-7, the best 24-game start in Pioneer history.
“It was pretty cool. We did not realize how many wins we had, we just kept the swag going and got in groove,” Hall said. “Everyone was playing up to their potential and we were having fun.”
On April 19 the Pioneers dropped both games (19-6, 15-5) in seven innings, losing the series to the Pointers 3-1.
“It’s baseball. Everyone has good days, bad days,” Frese said. “In a 40-game season you’re going to have all kinds of things happen.”
With three four-game series left against UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh and No. 1 UW-Whitewater, the Pioneers have 12 games remaining and an opportunity to win the WIAC outright, as well as perform in the NCAA Division III playoffs.
The Pioneers swept UW-La Crosse on Tuesday (8-5, 3-2).