RIVER FALLS, Wis. — The UW-River Falls baseball team split a WIAC doubleheader against UW-Eau Claire on Friday afternoon at First National Bank of River Falls Field, losing game one 9-1 before a bounce back win in game two 7-4.
UWRF is now 19-18 overall and 12-14 in the WIAC. The Falcons enter the final day of the regular season tied for fourth place in the WIAC. Saturday's doubleheader against UW-Eau Claire will determine whether the Falcons hold their position and qualify for the WIAC tournament for the first time in the new era of Falcon baseball.
UW-Eau Claire 9, UW-River Falls 1
The Blugolds jumped ahead on the first pitch and never trailed in game one of Friday's doubleheader.
Eau Claire took an early lead with two runs in the first inning, including a first-pitch home run. They added four more runs in the second to build a lopsided advantage.
The 6-0 score held until UWEC added one run in the eighth and two in the ninth to extend the lead to 9-0. The Falcons broke up the shutout with a run on a groundout in the bottom of the ninth.
The bullpen trio of
Parker Nedland,
Dillon Carrell, and
EJ Kuster combined to finish the game for the Falcons, throwing four innings and allowing just three runs.
Tanner Hraby,
Max Krebs, and
Hudson Wagner each recorded multi-hit games, combining for seven of the Falcons' nine hits. Wagner led UWRF with three hits in game one.
UW-River Falls 7, UW-Eau Claire 4
UWRF turned in a complete team performance to win game two, moving back into conference tournament contention.
The Falcons took their first lead of the day in the first inning, as Kaleb Zabielski doubled home a run and a Blugold error brought in another.
With one out in the fourth, the Falcons strung together four consecutive hits, including triples from Joe Riley and Tanner Hraby, to score three runs. A groundout plated
the fourth run of the inning, pushing the lead to 6-0.
The Blugolds answered in the fifth with four runs of their own, but the Falcons escaped a two-out, first-and-third jam to maintain the lead.
Kaden Kokaisel doubled and later scored in the bottom of the fifth to extend the UWRF advantage to 7-4.
UW-River Falls' bullpen combined to throw five shutout innings to close out the win. Cole Scheel earned the victory with 2.1 innings of middle relief, and Brayden Ramus recorded the save with the final 2.2 innings. On the day, the UWRF bullpen totaled nine innings, allowing just three runs.
Max Krebs led the Falcon offense with three hits, while Riley and Hraby added two each. Hraby's performance marked his 15th multi-hit game of the season.
