PLATTEVILLE, Wis. — The UW-River Falls baseball team opened its WIAC road weekend series at UW-Platteville Saturday afternoon with a pair of losses to the Pioneers.
The Falcons totaled 27 hits through two games with seven doubles and three homers.
Max Krebs and
Andrew Athmann led the Falcons with five hits each, combining for nine of the team's 15 runs batted in.
UWRF (9-14, 3-9 WIAC) faces the Pioneers again tomorrow for another doubleheader starting at noon.
UW-Platteville 14, UW-River Falls 10
The Falcons showed plenty of fight during game one, mounting a five-run rally in the seventh inning, but ultimately came up short by four runs to drop the series opener.
Down 3-0 early on, UWRF trimmed the Pioneer lead to 3-2 in the fourth with RBIs from
Kaleb Zabielski and
Max Stocco, but the home team answered with eight runs in the next three innings to claim an 11-2 edge.
After falling behind by as many as nine runs, Falcons clawed their way back into the game, starting with an
Andrew Athmann bases clearing double and a
JV Castillo two-run homer that cut the deficit to 11-7 in the seventh inning.
Another two-run bomb in the eighth, this time from
Max Krebs, put UWRF within four runs, down 13-9. Platteville quickly responded with homers of their own in the bottom halves of the seventh and eighth to preserve their lead and pull away with the win.
The Falcons out-hit the Pioneers 15-11, led by three hits apiece from Castillo, Stocco, and Krebs.
UW-Platteville 11, UW-River Falls 6
In another high-scoring affair, the Pioneers grabbed an early lead and led throughout to earn the Saturday sweep but not without a battle from the Falcons.
Platteville jumped ahead early, scoring two runs in the first inning and adding four more in the second, establishing a 6-0 lead.
UWRF managed to score a run in the third inning off an
Andrew Athmann RBI single scoring
JV Castillo, but the Pioneers maintained control, keeping the Falcons at bat through the middle innings.
In the seventh,
Max Krebs went yard - his second homer of the day and team-leading sixth of the season to cut the UWP lead to 6-3, but the Pioneers' consistent offense which featured additional runs in the seventh and eight innings ensure their victory.
Despite the loss UWRF again held a 12-11 edge in base hits, led by a 4-for-5 game from Athmann.
Jackson Conway pitched a solid 5.2 innings of relief, totaling three strikeouts while allowing two runs.
