Pioneers End Season with 7-5 Loss to Edgewood

Two RBI singles in the bottom of the seventh led host Edgewood College to a 7-5 win over the University of Wisconsin-Platteville baseball team in the season finale for the Pioneers in Verona.

UW-Platteville ends the 2012 season with an 11-29 overall mark and Edgewood will continue its season in its conference tournament with a game on Thursday in the NAC Tournament with a 17-21 overall mark.

The contest marked the final game for seven seniors and Pioneer head coach Eric Frese gave the starting nod to graduating senior Brad Kerkman. The Algonquin, Illinois native pitched 4 1/3 innings, scattered 10 hits in a no decision. Out of the bullpen, he called on another senior Grant Oldenburg, who made his final appearance in the blue and orange. He pitched the final 3 2/3 innings, allowing three hits in the loss to end with a 3-2 overall mark.

The Pioneers jumped out to a 2-0 lead out of the gates with a RBI single by senior Levi Ney and a RBI triple by senior Trevor Kattre. The Pioneer senior group accounted for six of the 10 hits including two each from Cody Luther and Charlie Beckman.

Edgewood came back to score in the next three innings en route to a 5-2 lead after three innings.

UW-Platteville picked away at the lead, scoring a run in the fourth and two in the seventh to tie the game at 5. In the fourth, Jon Lewerke drove in a run after an Edgewood error. In the seventh, they scored both of their runs on the strength of just one hit - a RBI double by Evan Greco. The other run came in as a result of a wild pitch by Edgewood pitching after two walks to start the inning.

The Pioneers stranded a base runner in the eighth and two more in the ninth in an attempt to make a comeback.

Edgewood utilized six pitchers in the contest, including Casey Geissberger, who had the shortest stint of the six picked up the win. He went just a third of an inning to pick up his third win of the season. Joe Gura pitched the ninth for his school record fifth save of the season.