Maybe it was the early hour, but it took a while for the Warhawk bats to awaken in UW-Whitewater's 8-3 win over Wartburg College in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III regional hosted by Augustana College in Moline, Illinois Sunday. Whitewater, 28-18 overall and 2-1 in the double elimination regional, will play Millsaps College, 34-9 and 2-1, in an elimination game at 1:00 Sunday. The Millsaps-Whitewater winner will face Carthage College, 35-6 and 2-0, Monday for the regional title. Since Carthage is unbeaten in the regional Whitewater (if it defeats Millsaps) would have to win twice Monday. The Augustana regional winner will join seven other regional titlests for the NCAA III World Series May 22-26 in Grand Chute, Wisconsin. UW-Whitewater's Tournament Central web site
box score/plays
Junior righthander Doug Hanson came up with his longest, and best, outing of the season to help UW-W advance. Hanson, who came in with no complete games in thirteen appearances this season, went the distance, giving up two earned runs on nine hits, four walks and three strikeouts. He did not throw a wild pitch or hit a batter in raising his record to 4-1. Hanson's complete game was the first on the Warhawk pitching staff not thrown by Aaron Dott (who has three).
UW-W designated hitter Sam Petrasko opened the top of the second with a single, then stole second base. Junior third baseman Nick Rechlitz brought Petrasko in with a single, a good sign since Whitewater is 20-5 when they score first in a game.
Wartburg shortstop Danny Rose reached on an error in the fourth and moved to second on a Mike Johnson single. Patrick Grau doubled to score Rose, leaving runners at second and third. Rightfielder Kyle Jones singled to score one run, but Warhawk leftfielder Matt Beyer threw out Grau at home to end the rally with Wartburg leading 2-1 after four.
Petrasko was the Warhawk catalyst again in the sixth, singling with one out. With two outs Petrasko wound up at third after a wild pickoff throw by the Wartburg catcher. Freshman shortstop Travis Wessels singled in Petrasko with the tying run, then stole second. Rechlitz picked up his second RBI of the game with a single, and then scored on a two out double by sophomore centerfielder Tony Wong to put UW-W up 4-2. Whitewater is 19-3 this season when leading after six innings.
UW-W added insurance runs, scoring four more, in the seventh. Catcher Rob Coe led off with a walk and moved to second on a Kevin Zalnis single. Matt Millar sacrificed both one base, setting up a two-run single by Petrasko. Beyer followed with another single, with both runners advancing a base on a throw to home plate. Wessels came through again, bringing in two more with a double to up UW-W's lead to 8-2. The Warhawks went in to the eighth with a record of 15-3 when they have scored at least six runs.
Wartburg finished the scoring in the eighth, with singles from Johnson and DH Jerrold Martin and a Grau sacrifice fly.
Every player in the Warhawk lineup had at least one hit in the team's total of fourteen. Petrasko and Rechlitz had three safeties each. Johnson led Wartburg's offense with a 3x4 game. Sophomore righthander Brad Watson, 5-5, went six and a third and took the loss for Wartburg.
Wartburg ends the season 28-20. The Knights fell to 5-15 when their opponent scores first, and 5-7 when Wartburg scores five or fewer runs.