UW-Platteville 3 -1

Baseball wins over UW-Stout.

The Pioneer Baseball team faced off against University of Wisconsin-Stout this weekend, beginning their regular season 3-1 and improving to an overall 7-9 record.  They played double-headers on both Saturday and Sunday.  

The weekend started out rough with University of Wisconsin-Platteville losing the first game of the double header on Saturday 2-1 in 11 innings. Caleb Kaufmann pitched 7 innings in the first game, with Nate Jennings finishing the final 4 innings.  The Pioneers had 10 hits, but were unable to capitalize on those hits to bring their players home.  

UW-Platteville fared much better in the second game on Saturday, getting their offense into a solid groove and sending their runners across the plate. The Pioneers scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning, giving them a solid lead going into the rest of the game. Tyler Vogel pitched 6 full innings without any earned runs, with Scottie Gordon finishing the last couple innings allowing one run. The Pioneers had fewer hits than the first game, but they made up for it with patience, stepping on base with 8 walks.  The Pioneers finished the game 5 runs to 2, ending the day 1-1 with the Blue Devils.

On Sunday, UW-Platteville started strong, with only one run scored against a strong showing by pitchers Edwin Calvillo and Samuel Peters.  Jonathon Kelso led the Pioneers offensively, sending in an RBI and scoring himself.  Sam Behm and Logan Kozak helped out with their own RBI’s, and finished the game 4 runs to one, giving the Pioneers a 2-1 record on the weekend.  

The final game showed the exhaustion of both teams, with both the Pioneers and the Blue Devils playing roughly.  The Blue Devils scored right off the bat in the top of the first, starting the matchup with an early 2-0 lead.  The Pioneers answered with their own run, thanks to John Moses’ RBI. The Blue Devils scored again in the top of the second, keeping the 2-run cushion they built and pushing the Pioneers to answer.  In the bottom of the second the Pioneers scored on an RBI from Logan Kozak, closing the score gap between the teams.  

The Pioneers trailed by one for the next 4 innings.  Then in the bottom of the sixth Collin Mormann singled into center, earning 2 RBI’s and quickly changing the lead.  The Pioneers then turned the tables when Collin Mormann stole home, giving the Pioneers a 6-3 lead.  The Blue Devils scored in the top of the eighth, bringing the score closer.  Then Platteville scored in the bottom, with John Kelso sending in the last Pioneer RBI of the game.  The Blue Devils responded in the top of the ninth, but they only managed 2 more runs, leaving Platteville one run ahead and earning the victory.  

After a few days of much needed rest, the Pioneers travel to Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, on Thursday, April 4 to play a non-conference game.