The UW-Whitewater baseball team will have to beat Misericordia (Pennsylvania) University twice Thursday to earn the NCAA Division III national championship.
The Warhawks have been there and done that. Coach John Vodenlich’s squad swept 12 doubleheaders this season en route to its 44-11 record. With the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference scheduling back-to-back doubleheaders on Saturdays and Sundays during the regular season, the Warhawks are used to playing “two today.”
Misericordia (43-10) took the advantage in the best-of-three championship series with a 12-9 victory Tuesday night in Eastlake, Ohio. It was the sixth game in five days for both teams, and both pitching staffs were throwing on fumes.
With a day off Wednesday, the Warhawks can turn to their No. 1 starter Michael Hilker Jr. in Game 2 of the series, slated to start at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Vodenlich is confident his team will be up for the challenge after the first-game disappointment.
“You don’t get to this point by having big ups and downs,” Vodenlich said. “Part of having a team that is mature and professional and that can play this type of baseball is that mental toughness.
“They understand,” Vodenlich said. “Sure, we would have loved to have won, but it is over and done.”
Hilker takes an 8-2 record into Thursday’s first game. The 6-foot-2 sophomore right-hander lost a 2-0 game against Salve Regina on Saturday. Hilker earned the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year honor and a spot on both the American Baseball Coaches Association and D3Baseball.com All-America first teams.
“We have to make some adjustments, and that’s what we’re doing today,” Vodenlich said in a phone interview as he watched his team take batting practice Wednesday afternoon. “I feel if we win that first game, the advantage goes to us in Game 2.”
The second game would start 45 minutes after the first game ends.
Misericordia relies on playing small ball, utilizing bunts, walks and steals to force opponents into mistakes. The Cougars lead D-III with 63 sacrifice bunts and are second with 158 stolen bases. Misericordia had two sacrifice bunts, bunted for a hit and stole three bases in the victory Tuesday.
Vodenlich said the Warhawks knew Misericordia’s strategy, but the players were not used to playing defense against such tactics.
“They executed wonderfully,” Vodenlich said of the Cougars. “They put a bunt down with two outs right on the line. You can talk about it and see it, but until you play against it, you don’t fully comprehend what’s happening.”
Vodenlich did not want to disclose who would start Game 3 if the Warhawks get to that point. He ruled out having to resort to a bullpen game like the Warhawks did Tuesday.
“We got arms,” Vodenlich said. “We’re ready to go. But we’re not going to save any arms in the first game. We need to win the first one.”
The Warhawks have come through in similar predicaments several times this postseason.
In the Super Regional at Prucha Field at Jim B. Miller Stadium in Whitewater two weeks ago, the Warhawks lost the best-of-three series opener to Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rival UW-La Crosse 3-2.
The Warhawks came back to win two games against the Eagles the next day 8-0 and 8-2.
In the double-elimination bracket play at the World Series, the Warhawks lost their second game 2-0 against Salve Regina (Rhode Island) College. Whitewater responded by winning its next three games, including defeating Salve Regina twice on Monday.
The first of those three victories came against Birmingham-Southern (Alabama) University. That school closed its doors for good due to financial problems Friday, which was the first day of the World Series. The plight of the school’s baseball team that had no school to return to became the story of the World Series.
Birmingham-Southern led the Warhawks 10-5 going into the seventh inning of their elimination game Sunday. The Warhawks rallied to tie the game in the eighth inning and won in the bottom of the ninth on Sam Paden’s homer.
Vodenlich wants the Warhawks to assume Birmingham-Southern’s feel-good role.
“You can’t write a better story,” Vodenlich said. “If we would win two, that is going to be the best story out there.
“If you look at our season, and how it’s gone — the number of doubleheader sweeps we’ve had to win and games that we’ve come from behind to win like the Birmingham-Southern game — we’re writing a pretty good story, too.”
That story, one way or the other, will end Thursday.
“You start with 400 (D-III) teams in the nation, and there’s only two teams playing on the final day,” Vodenlich said. “We’re one of them.
“It’s pretty special.”
NCAA DIVISION III WORLD SERIES
At Eastlake, Ohio
CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
(Best of three)
RESULT TUESDAY
Game 1: Misericordia University 12, UW-Whitewater 9
GAME(S) THURSDAY
Game 2: Misericordia University (43-10) vs. UW-Whitewater (44-11), 10 a.m.
Game 3 (if necessary): 45 minutes after Game 2
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