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| Jason Jacobson attempts to turn two |
UW-Stevens Point edged host UW-Platteville three times in tightly-contest games Monday in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
The 18th-ranked Pointers beat the Pioneers 5-2, 3-1 and 5-0 in seven-inning games. The teams played a tripleheader after both Saturday and Sunday doubleheaders were rained out.
Brandon Hempstead held the Pioneers to five hits in the opener, and the Pointers broke open a 1-0 game with four runs in the sixth. Ross Bennett had a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth for the Pioneers and a triple in the fourth. Kyle Brudos yielded just two earned runs in six innings, and Greg Jarosz threw a scoreless seventh.
In the second game, Mike Thrun pitched six innings of one-run ball, while pro prospect Jordan Zimmermann hit 95 mph on the radar gun to save the 3-1 game in the seventh. The Pointers' Brad Archambeau and Brandon Scheidler hit RBI singles in the second, while Adam Evanoff doubled and scored on a wild pitch in the fifth. The Pioneers' run came in the fourth, when Matt Paulus doubled and scored on Nick Aplin's infield single. Kyle Mack allowed three runs in five innings while suffering his first loss against two wins, and Corey Connelly threw two perfect innings in relief.
The Pointers' Garrett Nix and the Pioneers' Joe Lange engaged in a tremendous pitching battle in the final game, with Nix prevailing on a one-hitter. Both pitchers struck out nine in seven innings. Aplin had the lone Pioneer hit, a single in the second. Ryan Byrnes had a two-run double in the Pointer sixth, and Zimmermann homered in the seventh.
UWSP improved to 9-6 overall, while the Pioneers fell to 5-9. UWP plays Loras Thursday at Kendall Murray Field, beginning at 3 p.m.
The Pioneers and Pointers will tangle four times over the weekend, with Saturday and Sunday doubleheaders at noon each day.
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