UW-SP baseball battles back into thick of WIAC race The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point baseball team is back in the WIAC race after a huge doubleheader sweep of the nation's No. 3 ranked team. The Pointers, who were 0-4 in the conference, improved to 6-4 in the league with 17-14 and 6-3 victories Saturday at home against UW-Oshkosh. The sweep put UW-SP in a third-place tie with UW-La Crosse (6-4) and the Pointers trail first place UW-Whitewater (8-2) by two games. UW-Oshkosh is in second place at 7-3. The top four teams in the conference compete for the WIAC championship Saturday, May 13. Seven of the eight teams in the conference still have a chance to qualify for the tournament and five teams still could host the tournament. UW-Stout is in the playoff picture at 5-5 and UW-River Falls is 4-6. UW-Platteville even has a mathematical chance at making the tournament with a 3-7 record. In the season's final weekend, UW-SP plays doubleheaders at UW-Superior Friday and at Stout Saturday. Whitewater travels to La Crosse Friday and River Falls Saturday for twinbills, while Oshkosh visits Stout Friday and Superior Saturday. La Crosse hosts Platteville Saturday. The automatic berth to the NCAA Division 3 tournament is awarded to the team with the most victories in the regular season and tournament combined. For the Pointers to clinch the berth, they need to win all four games this weekend and both tournament games. They also need two Whitewater losses and one Oshkosh loss, either this weekend or in the conference semifinals. * * * After a 4-0 weekend in WIAC play, the Pointers swept the league's Player of the Week awards as Bill Verbrick was named Pitcher of the Week and Kevin Fry was the league's Position Player of the Week. Pointers-UW-Oshkosh doubleheader UW-SP used a 20-hit attack to capture the first game and an outstanding pitching effort from Bill Verbrick in the second game to sweep the doubleheader. The Pointers came from behind to win the opening game 17-14 and then took a 6-3 victory in the nightcap, which marked UW-SP's fourth straight victory over the Titans. "This is obviously a huge sweep for us," Pointers' coach Brian Nelson said. "Our guys were 0-4 in the conference, but they haven't given up." In the opener, the teams combined for 37 hits and the Titans had seven errors. UW-SP opened a 7-0 lead after three innings and starting pitcher Justin Duerkop hadn't allowed a hit until the Titans struck for 12 runs in the fourth as the first 10 batters reached base. UW-SP slowly climbed back into the game, scoring runs in each of the first seven innings. The Pointers trailed 13-10 in the seventh, but struck for seven runs to take a 17-13 lead. Jon Jagler hit a two-run single to make it 14-13 and, three batters later Pat McCann hit his second home run of the game for a 17-13 lead. Verbrick allowed just six hits in a complete game victory in the second game. He was spotted an early 5-0 lead as the Pointers scored two runs in the second on a throwing error and a run-scoring single by Mike McCann. Sam Molski added a two-run double in the third and Kevin Fry followed with a RBI groundout to give UW-Stevens Point the 5-0 advantage. Softball The Pointers will meet UW-Platteville for the fourth time this season in the first round of the WIAC softball tournament, which begins Friday in Oshkosh. The Pointers are the fourth seed and will take on the fifth-seeded Pioneers, who UW-SP beat two of three times. UW-Whitewater is the top seed and will meet either eight-seeded UW-Oshkosh or ninth-seeded UW-Superior in the first round, with the winner facing the Stevens Point-Platteville winner. In the other half of the bracket, second-seeded UW-Eau Claire takes on seventh-seeded UW-Stout and third-seeded UW-La Crosse meets sixth-seeded UW-River Falls. The tournament is double-elimination and concludes Saturday. UW-River Falls tournament Cari Briley singled home Kelly Rutta with the winning run in the top of the eighth inning as the Pointers beat UW-Stout 6-5 Sunday to force a split of its games at the UW-River Falls tournament. The Pointers lost their opening game of the day 6-0 to UW-Eau Claire to finish the weekend 3-1. Jamie Lowney was the winning pitcher against UW-Stout, beating the Blue Devils for the second straight day. Lowney struck out five and walked none in the complete game victory Sunday. The Pointers jumped out to a 5-2 lead with three runs in the fourth inning but Stout rallied in the seventh to tie the game at 5-5. Rutta was placed on second to open the eighth and Briley led off the inning with a run-scoring single for the game-winner. Lowney retired all three batters in the bottom of the eighth. UW-EC scored two runs in both the first and second innings to jump out to a 4-0 lead in Sunday's opener. Blugolds' pitcher Heidi Bergstrom limited the Pointers to just four hits. UW-SP had its only walk and two of its four hits in the first inning, but left the bases loaded. Karen Guckenberger suffered her third loss of the season for the Pointers, giving up 12 hits and six earned runs to fall to 14-3 for the year. On Saturday, the Pointers topped River Falls 10-6 and UW-Stout 2-0. Against the Falcons, the Pointers scored four times in the top of the eighth to break a 6-6 tie. Briley led the way with a 5-for-5 and four RBI performance, which included a bases-loaded single in the eighth. Lowney allowed only two hits and struck out four in the complete game win. The Pointers scored their runs on a Nikki Best RBI double in the third and a Sarah Berg bases-loaded fielder's choice in the fifth. Track and field For the first time in 17 years, WIAC outdoor track and field teams will travel to UW-Superior for the conference championships. The meet opens Friday and continues Saturday. The Pointers placed second in last year's men's competition and fifth in the women's team standings. At this season's indoor meet, the Pointers were third in the men's standings and fourth in the women's championships. The UW-SP men's team swept the top three places in the 5,000-meter run and finished third in the team standings at Saturday's UW-Eau Claire Invitational. UW-Oshkosh and UW-Eau Claire topped the Pointers in the six-team meet. Mike Heidke won the 5,000 in 15:04.78 while Ryan Wenos and Mike Peck were second and third respectively. Other winners for the Pointers were Joel Schult (discus with 50.16 meters), Steve Tingum (1,500 meters in 4:00.51). Several team members participated in the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa. The Pointers team of Shawn Hau, Eric Miller, Jesse Drake and Chris Horvat were seventh in the sprint medley relay. Becky Lebak won the 1,500 meters in 4:43.91 to lead the UW-SP women's team at the UW-La Crosse Invitational Saturday. The Pointers finished seventh among nine teams as the Eagles won the meet. Women's golf The Pointers finished fourth among five teams at the UW-Oshkosh Spring Invitational with a score of 375. Kathryn Carlson (86), Abby Hall (94), Jenny Roder (97), Kelly Rogers (98), Jessie Johnson (103) and Brenda Mason (107) competed for UW-SP. UW-Oshkosh won the meet with 345 while UW-EC and UW-Whitewater each scored 354.