Pioneers Split Twinbill at Edgewood

To start the final week of the regular season, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville baseball team split a doubleheader with Edgewood College on Wednesday as the Pioneers took the opener, 5-4 and dropped the nightcap, 4-2.

The twinbill split improves UW-Platteville to 9-28 and Edgewood is now 18-20 on the season.

For the second time in three games, UW-Platteville scored three times in the first inning. The Pioneers would go on to win the opener, 5-4 on just four hits. Brett Benesh had a hit and two RBIs, Levi Ney and Brad Milka each scored twice to lead the UW-Platteville offense.

UW-Platteville starter Tyler Nelson went six innings, scattering 10 hits, allowing three runs – two earned to earn his first victory on the season. Grant Oldenburg pitched the final three innings of four-hit relief for his fourth save of the season.

Edgewood starter Trevor Koehn went the distance for the complete game, surrendering just four hits and striking out five in the loss to fall to 3-3.

To start the game, Trevor Kattre walked and promptly swiped second. He moved to third on a ground out by Tyler Jacobson and would eventually score on an Edgewood wild pitch.

The next two Pioneers –Ney and Milka would reach base on a walk and single to put runners on the corner for Aaron Hopson, who got a sacrifice fly for the second run of the inning. With two out and a 2-0 lead, Benesh tripled to right field to score Milka to stretch the lead to 3-0.

The Pioneers stretched the lead to 5-0 with a two-run third inning on just one hit. In the inning, Benesh drove in his second run of the game and Jesse Wiley delivered a RBI single.
Edgewood got on the board in its half of the third inning on a RBI sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 5-1. The Pioneers kept the Eagles out of the big innings stranding seven base runners despite scoring a run each in the fourth, seventh and eighth to trim the deficit to 5-4. A game-ending double play in the bottom of the ninth sealed the win for the Pioneers.

In the nightcap, the Pioneers stranded 16 runners on base in the 4-2 loss as four Pioneers had multiple hits. Tyler Jacobson, Brad Milka, Aaron Hopson and Kevin Fessler each had two hits to lead a 10-hit attack.

UW-Platteville starter Nate Poelmann pitched 4.2 innings, scattering seven hits, allowing three runs – all earned to fall to 0-1 in the loss.

Edgewood stranded 10 runners on base in an eight-hit attack. Mitch Mogensen had a game-high three hits to lead the Eagles. Starter Miles Mayer went 6.1 innings; allowing seven hits, one run – earned and striking out five to raise his record to 2-3 and Jason Towns pitched the final two innings of three-hit relief for his first save.

Each team got on the board in the first inning as Edgewood took an early 2-1 lead on a two-run home run by Mike Selvaggi. The Eagles stretched it to 4-1 on a solo home run in the fifth and a RBI sacrifice bunt in the sixth.

The Pioneers mounted a rally in the eighth when Zach Demmon and Griffin Wiley walked to start the inning to prompt an Edgewood pitching change. After a strikeout, Tyler Jacobson drove in pinch runner Jesse Wiley on a RBI single through the right side. With the tying run on first and runners on the corners, the Pioneers were unable to draw any closer as a strikeout and a ground out ended the threat.

Next for UW-Platteville is a doubleheader on Saturday at the University of Dubuque at 1 p.m.