Baseball comes out victorious over conference rival

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Ky McCombe

Senior pitcher Westin Muir (18) looks on to the crowd as he throws the ball toward the catcher in Prucha Field Sunday April 3, 2022.

Parker Olsen, Sports Editor

The No. 10 UW-Whitewater baseball team (11-4, 3-1 WIAC) defeated UW-Oshkosh (6-8, 1-3 WIAC) twice in their double header at Prucha Field at Jim Miller Stadium in Whitewater on April 3. The Warhawks took the first game of the double header by a score of 3-0 and the second game by a score of 6-3. 

Game one of the double header was delayed by over an hour as the teams waited for

Senior pitcher Westin Muir (18) throws the ball in Prucha Field Sunday afternoon, April 3, 2022.
(Ky McCombe )

snow to melt in the outfield grass, the Warhawks have only played half of their originally scheduled conference games due to weather. The teams were scheduled to play Saturday but the games were postponed due to weather.

Westin Muir had a stellar pitching start for Whitewater, he pitched seven innings, posted 10 strikeouts, gave up just two hits and four walks. Muir did not allow a hit until the seventh inning. 

“If you look at the line score, he was pretty impressive, if you talk to Westin he would say he wasn’t sharp today,” head coach John Vodenlich said. “That’s the type of high end pitcher he is right. I mean if he’s not sharp and he can still do that, think about what will happen when he finally puts it all together.”

The bats got going early for the Warhawks as they scored two runs in the first inning. Matt Scolan and Sam Vomhof opened the game with base hits. Jacob DeMeyer’s lone hit of the game drove in the first run. Later Nick Paget drove in a second run. 

In the fifth inning, Vomhof singled in Bennett Frazer to make it a 3-0 game,

Sophomore first base Nick Paget (35) gets ready to hit the ball in Prucha Field Saturday afternoon, April 3, 2022.
(Ky McCombe )

the score would hold true through the rest of the game. The Warhawks finished the game with six hits, half of which came from Vomhof. With the win Muir picked up his third win of the season and Eli Frank got his first save of the season.

In the second game of the day the bases got busier thanks to the bats and errors. The Warhawks won game two 6-3, with 10 hits and one error. Oshkosh closed out the game with five hits and one error of their own. 

Paget hit an RBI double in the sixth inning to give the Warhawks their first lead of the game, Matt Korman extended the lead with an RBI single later in the inning. Whitewater led 2-0 at the end of the sixth.

“Certainly scoring early helps our game and helps our mentality… It’s always a good thing to score first,” Vodenlich said.

The Warhawks needed more scoring though in order to take their second win of the day. Kade Lancour threw six scoreless innings before he gave up three runs and exited the game after finishing the seventh inning, he had eight strikeouts and allowed just one earned run. Oshkosh loaded the bases with one out and then drove in a run with a bunt single. A throwing error on shortstop Darryl Jackson allowed two Titans to score later in the inning. 

The Warhawks put together a four run eighth inning to retake the lead for good. Paget hit another RBI double, he would later score on an Oshkosh error, David Rubin came in to pinch hit which resulted in a two RBI blooper single. 

Sam Vomhof took the mound for the ninth inning and got his second save of the season after allowing a walk. 

The Warhawks will not host again until April 23 when they take on Finlandia, a conference foe from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Whitewater travels to Eau Claire and then La Crosse before returning home.