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| When the dust settled, UWP and UWW tied |
One of the wackiest baseball series in either UW-Platteville or UW-Whitewater's history ended with a 6-6 tie Sunday.
A severe rainstorm prematurely ended the final game after seven innings at Kendall Murray Field. The Warhawks won the first game Sunday 15-13 despite the Pioneers rallying from an 11-2 deficit to tie the score.
The schools split slugfests the previous day. The Warhawks won Saturday's opener 13-10 and the Pioneers the nightcap 19-12.
Only Mother Nature stopped the carnage of offense. The teams combined for 94 runs on 108 hits, 42 walks and 22 errors. The damage could have been worse as they also left a combined 79 runners on base.
The second game Sunday prominently showed some of the strangeness, such as:
*The Pioneers scored three runs in the second inning--without a hit. Four walks, a balk, a hit batter and an error led to a 3-0 UWP lead. Jacob Bandy hit his first collegiate home run in the fourth, a two-run shot that gave UWP a 5-2 lead.
*The Warhawks cut the lead to 6-4 in the fifth--on an inning-ending double play. With runners on the corners and one out, Greg Harder hit a hard shot to UWP first baseman Ross Bennett, who tagged the base and threw to second to nail Bill Gorman. However, since the force play was no longer in effect, Sam Petrasko came home from third before the second out was made, and the run counted.
*UWW tied the game in the seventh on a sacrifice fly--that scored two runs. Billy Johnson hit a ball deep to right center, and Scott Dybevik made a fine running catch. His momentum carried him to the wall, and both Jordan Stine and Ben Prather scored.
The Pioneers, who used seven pitchers in the contest, with only Corey Connolly throwing more than an inning, had a chance to take the lead in the soggy bottom of the seventh. Warhawk reliever Greg Riek pitched out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam, and the umpires immediately halted play.
Under the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rules, the last game of a series is not completed after it is stopped.
UW-Whitewater is now 14-11-1 on the year and 7-6-1 in the WIAC, while the Pioneers are 10-15-2, 3-9-1.
In game one Sunday, the Warhawks went ahead 10-1 and 11-2 before the Pioneers began to rally. UWP scored single runs in innings two through six and then scored seven in the seventh. Steve Bomkamp blasted a two-run home run, and Warhawk pitchers issued three bases-loaded walks. Mike Kuhn scored on a wild pitch, tying the score at 12-12.
UWW strung together five hits in the ninth, with Thomas Corcoran hitting a two-run single and pinch-hitter Cory Trepanier singling home another.
The Pioneers scored once in the ninth when Bandy doubled home Nick Aplin, but Bomkamp flied out deep to right, ending the marathon slugfest.
The Warhawks had 18 hits and the Pioneers 16. UWW's Prather and UWP's Jerod Haxton each had four in the contest.
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