Out of all the games that the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team has played this season, they have won 18 games and lost five games.

The UWL Eagles beat the St. Olaf (MN) Lions in their non-conference doubleheader against St. Olaf on Thursday, April 13.

In the first game, the Eagles scored four runs in the first, second, and third inning, while St. Olaf scored one run in the first inning and one run in the second inning. The Eagles scored three runs in the fourth inning, two runs in the fifth inning, and three runs in the seventh inning. St. Olaf scored two more runs in the fifth inning and one run in the sixth inning. The final score of the game was 20-5, with the Eagles winning.

In the second game of their non-conference game versus St. Olaf, the UWL baseball team made four runs in the first inning while St. Olaf made three. No runs were scored again for either team until the fourth inning when UWL scored two runs. St. Olaf scored two runs in the fifth inning. In the sixth inning, the Eagles scored five runs on three hits, including a home run, bringing the final score to 11-5.

Through April 9, the Eagles were ranked 25th on the d3baseball.com top 25 rankings.

The Eagles baseball season begins in the fall with practices and scrimmages. During the winter, the Eagles continue to train by attending mandatory conditioning and lifts.

Once the spring semester starts, the Eagles practice five to six days a week until spring break which is when the Eagles play their first games. The Eagle’s played their first game of the season against UW-Superior during their spring break trip to Florida. UW-Superior is not a part of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC).

The baseball team stayed in Florida for eight nights and nine days, where they lived in condos with eight other team members. The Eagles played, in addition to UW-Superior, the University of Southern Maine, Dickinson College (PA), Coe College (IA), College of St. Scholastica (MN), William Paterson University (NJ), Bethel University (MN), Keystone College (PA), Hope College (MI), and Kalamazoo College (MI). The Eagles won nine out of the 11 games they played.

“It’s a lot of fun because the only thing you have to worry about on spring break is playing baseball and you get to be in Florida with 30 of your best friends so there’s nothing better than the Florida trip,” said Ty Hamilton, who is in his fifth year playing for UWL.

After spring break, the conference series includes double-header games on Saturdays and Sundays. Other UW system schools that have baseball teams include UW-Stout, UW-Platteville, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Whitewater, UW Oshkosh, and UW-Eau Claire. However, the baseball team also plays teams outside of the WIAC conference during this time, too.

Whichever team has the best conference record at the end of the conference season gets to host the conference tournament, where the top four teams of the conference play. The winner gets an automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) tournament.

When asked how the season this year is going, Hamilton said, “I think we have a lot of selfless guys. Everyone is focused on winning, and I think that’s a big strength. Everyone is bought into what the coaches have been saying and bought into the process of the way we do things.”

Logan Pye is in his third year playing baseball for UWL. “As a team, we are taking care of business like we thought we could.”

In addition, Pye said that the team put aside goals at the beginning of the year. “We have team goals that we set aside at the beginning of the year.” Pye said, “One of them was leaving Florida with a winning record. Did that. So far we’ve won or at least split every conference series, that was part of the goal. We’re putting up a huge number of runs a game, we’re giving up less. That was another one of our goals, give up fewer runs. I think our average was six runs a game, that’s what our goal was.”

The UWL baseball team’s webpage can be found here.