Baseball falls to No. 4 UW-Whitewater, 3-0, on Senior Day

MEQUON, Wis. – The Concordia University Wisconsin Baseball team closed the 2014 regular season with a 3-0 setback against No. 4 UW-Whitewater at Kapco Park. The game was also senior day for the Falcons as four players were honored beforehand on outstanding careers.

CUW now enters postseason mode as it will host the six-team Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament this Thursday-Saturday, with a potential one game on Sunday. The Falcons, who are the tournament's third seed, will play fourth-seeded Edgewood College Thursday at 1 p.m.

Monday was all about the pitching as the teams combined to use 11 pitchers, six from CUW, in an attempt to save arms for upcoming conference tournaments. The UWW five combined to allow just four hits and no runs with Donnie Manke getting his first win by pitching three innings. Manke gave up two hits and struck out two. Austin Finn picked up his first career save for UWW, inheriting two runners in the ninth but retiring three straight to finish the game.

Junior Michael Winter (Cedarburg, Wis.) was the Falcons pitcher of record as he tossed two innings. The other five CUW pitchers did not give up a hit, including juniors Joel Sharon (Glendale, Wis.) and Tyler Adams (Jackson, Wis.). That duo each pitched two innings, Sharon recording two strikeouts. Sharon started the game by retiring all six hitters he faced. Freshman Dylan Gausman (Eagan, Minn.), junior Matthew Brueser (Oconomowoc, Wis.) and sophomore Tyler Gross (Wauwatosa, Wis.) each threw a scoreless inning to finish the game for the Falcons.

UWW (32-6) scored its three runs in the top of the sixth inning. Mikole Pierce gave the Warhawks a 1-0 lead with an RBI infield single. Michael Gonzalez and Casey Power then hit back-to-back sacrifice flies to make the score 3-0.

Sharon, junior Brandon Seifert (Germantown, Wis.), and sophomores Kyle Hegeman (New Berlin, Wis.) and Jacob Boudreaux (Wauwatosa, Wis.) each tallied a hit for the Falcons. Sharon and Seifert also had steals. The Warhawks hits came from the top four spots in the batting order, each player collecting one.

The four Falcon seniors honored before the game were Austin Baglow (Walled Lake, Mich.), Beau Burgert (Oshkosh, Wis.), Taylor Buuck (Hillsboro, Ore.) and Jay Kuczynski (Cedarburg, Wis.).