Pioneers sweep Pointers

STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-Platteville softball team swept UW-Stevens Point, 11-4 and 9-8, on Tuesday at McCarty Memorial. 

Freshman Jess Butzen earned both of the Pioneers' wins. She started the day with a complete game, giving up four runs on five hits, and then came in relief in the nightcap, to put down the Pointers. 

The Pioneers received an extra out in the third inning of the first game and took advantage of the Pointer error. Junior Lisa Karau recorded a two-out RBI single, scoring senior Becca Lowe to give UW-Platteville a 1-0 lead. 

Another Pointer error in the fourth innings allowed the Pioneers to take a 2-0 lead. 

In the fifth inning, the Pioneers managed to load the bases, scoring three runs, 5-0, with RBIs coming from sophomore Carley Rote, senior Ellyn Goerdt and freshman Chelsey Walker. 

UWSP managed to take a run back in the bottom of the fifth, but the Pioneers broke the game wide open with a six-run sixth inning. UW-Platteville led the frame off with three consecutive hits, and with a wild pitch the Pioneers went up 7-1. UWSP finally got an out, and the Pioneers responded with three straight RBI hits, 10-1. Rachel Strong then drove in the Pioneers' final run of the game on a ground out to third. 

Butzen gave up a two-run homer, and a Pioneer throwing error allowed UWSP to cut the deficit to 11-4 in the sixth.

Butzen closed the door in the seventh, putting the Pointers down in order. 

Lowe and Goerdt each tallied three hits to lead the Pioneers. Juniors MJ Patten and Haley Salazar and Rote all recorded two hits. 

The Pioneers used another big inning in the nightcap take an early lead. Goerdt led the second inning of with a solo shot to left field. UW-Platteville then loaded up the bases, and Patten drove in the second run of the game. Karau and Rote followed with back-to-back two-RBI hits, giving the Pioneers a 6-0 lead. 

UW-Platteville's Keri Treml gave up three runs on three hits in the bottom of the second, cutting the lead to 6-3. 

The Pioneers and UWSP traded runs in the third, and the Pointers tied the game up in the fourth inning, 8-8. Butzen came in the middle of the fourth and gave up two hits, which scored three inherited runners. 

In the seventh, Lowe reached base on a throwing error and then scored the go-ahead run two batters later on Rote's RBI single.

Butzen once again put the Pointers down in order in the final inning, earning her second win of the day.

The Pioneers wrap up the regular season on the road. UW-Platteville travels to UW-River Falls on Saturday and then to UW-Stout on Sunday.