Adler scores with two outs in bottom of 12th,
UW-L sets school record for wins
UPDATE: UW-L will play in third round of College World Series at 8 p.m. Monday now, after games were rained out Sunday.
APPLETON, Wis. – Two outs, tie game, bottom of 12 in the College World Series, and UW-La Crosse’s Shane Adler comes away the hero.
After the senior is hit by a pitch, he steals second base to get into scoring position. Travis Buxton-Verstegen comes up next and hits one to third base. Adler comes home, the throw is wild, he scores and UW-L moves one step closer to a National Championship.
La Crosse beat Emory 3-2 on Saturday night at Fox Cities Stadium and, now, heads into a matchup with either Emory again, or Trinity at 8 p.m. Monday.
Win, and La Crosse (35-13) moves onto the championship game Monday. Lose, and the teams play again for the title-game honor in the double-elimination tournament.
When it’s all said and done, UW-L, again, takes advantage of errors, five this time – four against Salisbury on Friday – and the team didn’t waste any time doing so.
In the top of the first, Emory’s left fielder made back-to-back errors on singles by Justin Anderson and Bryce Barsness, giving UW-L a pair of runs for a 2-0 lead that would last until the seventh inning.
That’s when Emory (30-14) finally got on the board. Through six innings, starter Joe Miller had nine strikeouts and no walks.
To lead off the seventh, he gave up his seventh and eighth hits and got the hook. Jameson Sadowske entered in a tough spot for La Crosse. The senior got the first batter to strike out, but the runners advanced to second and third.
He fell behind 3-1 to the next batter, but also got a strikeout, as UW-L fans breathed a sigh of relief.
Those breaths, however, were short lived. On the next at-bat, Emory’s Wilson Morgan delivered a two-run single to tie it. Brett Lake came up next and put Morgan into scoring position with a single of his own, but Sadowske got a strikeout to end the inning, sending the game deep into the night.
Sadowske would give up just one more hit the rest of the way, going six innings – the longest of his UW-L career – striking out six and walking one, allowing his team to win in dramatic fashion.
Barsness finished 3-for-5 for UW-L. Nobody else had more than one hit.