UW-L, Trinity play again today for right to face
No. 1-ranked SUNY Cortland for National Title
The UW-La Crosse baseball team suffered its first setback, but is still alive in the College World Series.
Trinity (Texas), the 15th-ranked team in the Division III, pounded out 19 hits in winning 16-6 over the Eagles at Fox Cities Stadium. The game finished just after midnight Tuesday.
It’s a tough setback for 22nd-ranked UW-L, but this is a double-elimination tournament and that was just the Eagles’ first loss. At 11 a.m. today, the two teams match up again for the right to face No. 1-ranked SUNY Cortland in the National Championship round.
The Red Dragons (43-4) didn’t lose on their way to play for the championship, which will be a best-of-three series with whomever makes it between La Crosse and Trinity. The first game of the championship will follow 50 minutes after the first game. Game 2 of the championship will take place on Wednesday and Game 3, if necessary, would follow that.
Against Trinity (40-13), things went bad right away for the Eagles (35-14) and only got worse. The Tigers scored two in the first – on a home run – four in the second and five in the third, leaving little hope for the Eagles to come back.
UW-L starter Troy Kenkel lasted just two innings, giving up six runs – four earned because of a second-inning error. Things unraveled even more for pitcher Logan Mallek in the third inning. He gave up three hits, UW-L committed two more errors, and Trinity had an 11-2 lead heading into the fourth.
The Eagles had 10 hits led by Justin Anderson, who was 3-for-4 with a solo home run. Teammate Shane Adler was 2-for-4. La Crosse used five pitchers on the night.