A senior from Germantown and a freshman from San Clemente, California, made sure the UW-Whitewater baseball team would be playing this week in the NCAA Division III World Series in Eastlake, Ohio.
Cade Berendt, a senior left-hander, and Jack Hagen, a freshman right-hander, each threw complete games to lead the Warhawks to 8-0 and 8-2 victories Saturday against UW-La Crosse to advance UW-Whitewater into the World Series that begins Friday in the Cleveland suburb.
The Warhawks (40-9) open World Series play with a game at 7 p.m. Friday against Randolph-Macon (Virginia) College (33-14).
Warhawks head coach John Vodenlich will be taking his sixth team to the World Series, but first since 2016. Vodenlich has coached two UW-Whitewater squads to national championships.
Vodenlich said he was glad the seniors on the team would get to play in a World Series for the first time.
“When these guys come to our program, it comes with a number of things,” Vodenlich said. “The level of expectation is way up. Unless we go there and compete for a national championship, these guys are disappointed.
“That’s the standard we set, and that’s the standard they want,” Vodenlich said.
Berendt was one of those seniors. After UW-La Crosse had opened the best-of-3 Super Regional with a 3-2 victory Friday, the 6-foot-1 195-pound righty was given the ball Saturday morning to get the victory needed to create a third game to decide who would go to the World Series.
Berendt delivered with a 3-hit, 13-strikeout masterpiece. First baseman Eli Frank’s single drove in leadoff hitter Aaron Holland to give the Warhawks a 1-0 lead in the first inning. That was all Berendt needed.
“I got a few pitches working early and just stuck with it,” Berendt said. “It worked out.”
Adam Cootway gave Whitewater a 2-0 lead with a solo homer in the fourth, and Andy Thies, Bennett Frazer and Holland each added RBI hits later in the inning to put the Warhawks in control 5-0.
Then it was Hagen’s turn on the mound in the decisive third game of the series.
The 6-3, 210-pound righty was not as dominant as Berendt. Hagen allowed eight hits and walked one La Crosse hitter, but he got the key outs when needed, and he often punctuated the end of the inning with fist pumps and yells as he walked to the Warhawks dugout.
Frank again gave the Warhawks a lead that stood up. The 6-3, 235-pound first baseman hit his 12th homer of the season over the left-center field fence to score Holland in the third inning.
Frank drove in five runs in the three-game series and leads the team with 65 RBI. Holland, a freshman catcher who leads off, was 5 of 11 with three runs scored and four RBI in the three games.
Warhawks left fielder Matt Scolan capped the scoring with a three-run homer in the eighth inning that began the World Series preparations. It was Scolan’s team-leading 15th homer of the season.
Hagen took it from there.
“I had a good feel for all my pitches,” Hagen said. “When you can command every pitch, it makes things a lot easier.”
Berendt threw 92 pitches and Hagen threw 109. Neither entertained any thought of coming out.
“You do feel some fatigue at some point,” Berendt said. “But when things were working out as they were today, you work through it.”
“You get caught up in the moment,” Hagen said. “Nothing else really matters.”
Not when a World Series berth is on the line.
GAME 2 RESULT SATURDAY
UW-WHITEWATER 8, UW-LA CROSSE 0
UW-La Crosse;000;000;000;--0;3;2;
UW-Whitewater;100;402;10x;--8;11;2;
Leading hitters—Urlaub (LC) 2x3, Thies (WW) 3x4. Holland (WW) 2x4, McVay (WW) 2x3. 2B—Frazer (WW). HR—Cootway (WW).
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)—LC: Deprez, L, 3 2/3-7-5-5-2-7; Matl, 2-3-2-1-1-0; Melnikoff, 2 1/3-1-1-0-1-1. WW: Berendt, W, 9-3-0-0-0-13.
GAME 3 RESULT SATURDAY
UW-WHITEWATER 8, UW-LA CROSSE 2
UW-La Crosse;000;011;000;--2;8;0;
UW-Whitewater;002;210;03x;--8;13;2;
Leading hitters—Vandenheu (LC) 3x4, Olver (LC) 2x4; Holland (WW) 2x4, Paden (WW) 3x4, Frazer (WW) 3x4. 2B—Vandenheu (LC), Vivian (LC); Hopper (WW), Paden (WW). HR—Frank (WW), Scolan (WW).
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)—LC: Anderson L, 3-5-4-4-3-3; Bouche 2/3-0-0-0-2-1; Katz 3 1/3-7-4-4-1-2; Redman 1-1-0-0-0-0-0. WW: Hagen W, 9-8-2-0-1-3.
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