Chris Kemp

As the temperature fell this weekend, the UW-Eau Claire men’s club baseball team heated things up at Carson Park, taking its second consecutive conference title.

Eau Claire kept the momentum alive coming off a 10-0 shutout against Whitewater last weekend to battle it out against the Marquette Golden Eagles.

The Blugolds knew they needed to sweep the series this weekend in order to stay in the running for the playoffs, and they did just that.

The Blugolds found themselves repeating history as they trounced Marquette 10-0 in Saturday night’s game. After Saturday night’s shutout, Eau Claire continued to keep things alive with two high-scoring wins on Sunday.

Senior coach Kyle Buchmann said the team was able to accomplish big wins because it has been playing to its full ability and because of the pressure of dropping out of playoff contention.

“We played like we can, and we should’ve played like that all season,” he said. “We had something to play for. We knew if we lost one game, we’d be done.”

Saturday senior Greg Aune’s pitching kept the Marquette bats quiet, as he allowed only four hits the entire game.

Buchmann said Aune’s pitching definitely added to Saturday night’s success.

“(Aune) pitched really well,” he said. “There was a lot of great outing by Aune.”

In the bottom of the second, Aune got things going early for the Blugolds not with his arm, but with his bat, as he belted a homerun.

In the third inning, Eau Claire added two more runs to the scoreboard, thanks to a double by senior Jordan Krause.

The fifth inning saw a repeat of the third. With two men on second and third, senior Larry David waited in the batter’s box before knocking a double to increase the score to 5-0.

A few Marquette errors and a double from junior Justin Musil in the seventh inning earned the Blugolds yet another run.

The momentum kept coming for the Blugolds as they added three more runs to the scoreboard in the eighth inning. After two walks and a single, the Blugolds found themselves with the bases loaded and two outs. Freshman Josh Ledzian hit a short pop-up sending junior Andy Minga home, which then was followed by two more runs.

With a final score of 10-0, Eau Claire ended the game in eight innings.

Eau Claire continued to keep things rolling during its second match-up against Marquette Sunday morning. In the first game of the double-header, the Blugolds scored early in the first inning and followed up with two runs in the second.

In the third inning, Marquette got on the board for the first time in the series. But before the Golden Eagles could send another player past home plate, Eau Claire ended the top of the inning with a double play.

Krause said the team continued to play hard Sunday because of the pressure to win in order to stay alive.

“We knew it was do or die,” he said. “We couldn’t let any of them get away from us. We knew we had to back up our pitching with our hitting, and we took full advantage.”

As the Blugolds stepped up to bat, Aune knocked one out of the park, bringing the score to 4-1.

In the fourth inning, the Eau Claire bats continued to be a powerhouse for the team. The Blugolds managed six runs with doubles coming off of senior Scott Beyer, Krause, Musil and David, pushing the score to 10-1.

Beyer said the team did well in the game because of its ability to put the ball in play.

“We hit the ball hard and that gave us a lot of opportunity to get on base,” he said.

Marquette couldn’t seem to answer back as they struggled to connect and continued making errors.

In the sixth and final inning, Aune hit a second home run that completed the score at 12-1.

Buchmann said Aune was a big asset to the team’s win.

“Greg came up huge batting again,” he said. “He scored so many runs, we didn’t have to rely on pitching during the game.”

Going into the second game of the double-header, Eau Claire continued to keep the bats cracking and took the final game of the series with a score of 22-10. Beyer said Sunday’s second game had a few problems coming from the mound, but Eau Claire continued to hit the ball and keep a significant lead.

“Our pitcher, Matt Olson, had some walks and they were able to hit the ball very well off (him),” he said, “but he could afford not to throw 100 percent, because we were hitting the ball very well.”

With this being the fifth time the Blugolds have played against Marquette, Krause said winning every time has showed the lack of competition the Golden Eagles have to offer.

“They do a few things well, but as far as competition goes, there really wasn’t any,” he said.

With the Blugolds sweeping the series, and with Madison winning this weekend, the Blugolds will advance into the playoffs.

The ‘Golds will face off for regionals against Nebraska May 14 at Carson Park.

Buchmann said Nebraska will be tough, but he is very happy with how the team has been playing and hopes to see it continue into the playoffs.

“(Nebraska) has been dominating in their conference, but we play what we think to be the toughest conference in the playoffs,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to come out hitting like we did this weekend.”