RIVER FALLS, Wis. — The UW-River Falls baseball team fell by scores of 17-5 and 13-10 on Sunday afternoon during the final home games of the 2025 season at First National Bank of River Falls Field.
The nationally ranked Eagles completed the weekend sweep with a combined 10 homers on the day while the Falcons had a pair along with 18 total hits with five doubles.
UWRF (12-24, 5-19 WIAC) wraps up the regular season next weekend, traveling to face UW-Eau Claire May 2-3.
UW-La Crosse 17, UW-River Falls 5
UWL took game one of the day and three of the series, tallying 18 hits with 10 doubles and six home runs, while UWRF totaled nine base hits.
Down 3-0 early on, the Falcons showed fight by twice trimming the UWL lead to one run.
JV Castillo sparked the offense with a two-RBI single in the third inning to cut the Eagle lead to 3-2, and the next inning UWRF scored three runs off four hits.
Back-to-back hits from John Santelman and Kaleb Zabielski led to a sacrifice bunt from Max Stocco to advance the Falcons into scoring position. Max Krebs then was hit by a pitch to load the bases, followed by a single from Kale Twombly to score Santelman. Tanner Hraby kept the ball rolling the in the next at bat with a 2-RBI single to set the score at 6-5 in favor of UWL.
However, the Eagles pulled away with five runs in the next two inning and broke the game open in the late innings, totaling 11 unanswered runs.
Offensively, Castillo and Krebs led the Falcons with two hits each.
UW-La Crosse 13, UW-River Falls 10 (10 inn.)
The series finale was a thriller, with the Falcons battling back from a seven-run deficit to take the lead in the eighth inning, but the visitors forced extra innings and sealed the win with a three-run 10th inning.
Down 7-0 in the fourth, the Falcons broke the shutout and UWL starting pitcher Owen Deprez's no-hitter with back-to-back hits from
Tanner Hraby and
Andrew Athmann. Hraby singled before a homer to left center by Athmann cut the Eagle lead to 7-2.
The Falcons threatened in the sixth inning, entering with a seven-run deficit, they loaded the bases and forced Deprez out of the game. A
JV Castillo sacrifice fly plated a run, followed by a
John Santelman's first career home run, a three-run bomb just inside the left field foul pole and UWRF trailed 9-6 heading into the seventh. UWRF came closer with a run in the seventh thanks to a Hraby RBI single before the Falcons tied and took their first lead of the weekend in the eighth.
Tom Kroohn and
Vaughn Johnson pitched scoreless innings of relief in the seventh and eighth, setting up the comeback. Castillo led off with a single before a two-out rally as a
Max Stocco double kept the inning alive, followed by a
Kaleb Zabielski base on balls. Then
Max Krebs hit a clutch double to left center to score Stocco and Zabielski and the Falcons led 10-9.
UWL quickly tied the game in the ninth, added three runs in the 10th, and shut the door by striking out the side in the bottom half for the triumph.
Hraby and Krebs led the Falcons with two hits apiece.
