Baseball's late rally highlights split with Pioneers

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire baseball team used a late rally in Game 2 to earn a doubleheader split with UW-Platteville on Wednesday at Carson Park. The Blugolds dropped Game 1 16-6, but scored the final six runs of the game in the nightcap to clinch a 6-4 victory — the team’s first win at home this season.

UW-Eau Claire (11-25, 3-17) fell behind 4-0 in Game 2 before staging the comeback. The Pioneers scored lone runs in the first, third, fifth and sixth innings to get ahead by four before the Blugolds’ offense came to life. The Blugolds got on the board with an RBI groundout from Walter Johnson in the bottom of the sixth. They cut the deficit to 4-3 after Eli Keirstead and Cade Mueller hit back-to-back sacrifice flies in the seventh, and eventually tied the game when Dustan Green was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the eighth.

Jacob Lacy put UW-Eau Claire ahead with a bases-loaded walk later in the eighth, and Mueller added a bases-loaded walk of his own in the inning too. Draza Dupor finished off his first career win by retiring the Pioneers in order in the top of the ninth.

Dupor pitched 3.1 scoreless innings of relief. He held UW-Platteville to one hit while striking out four. Joe Clinton started and worked 5.2 effective innings. He surrendered four runs and struck out seven.

Drew Salyers led the team with two hits in Game 2.

The win helped the Blugolds recover after Game 1 slipped away. The Pioneers pulled away across the middle and late innings of the contest after the Blugolds had made it a 7-5 contest through three frames. UW-Platteville scored four times in the top of the first, but the Blugolds answered with a two-run homer from Carson Windeshausen in the bottom half of the inning. The Pioneers tacked on three more runs in the third, but another two-run shot from Windeshausen in the bottom of the inning coupled with a solo homer from Jack Sandvik cut the deficit to 7-5.

The Pioneers pulled away with two runs in the fourth, sixth, eighth and ninth frames.

Windeshausen finished with four RBI in Game 1. He, Sandvik and Connor Weik all had two hits.

The Blugolds will wrap up their season with a four-game series against UW-La Crosse on May 3-4. The series begins with a doubleheader on Friday, May 3 at 12 p.m. at Carson Park.