The UW-Eau Claire baseball team took on UW-Platteville in two doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday. 

Chase Yaeger, a third-year finance student said during the week leading up to the game, the team was finally able to practice outside but will probably be heading back inside due to the current weather. 

During their first match, the Blugolds won 21-13. Andrew Murphy, a third-year finance student, was the first player to score for the Blugolds in the opening match during the third inning. 

Throughout the game, Yaeger was able to score three hits. The Blugold with the most hits during that game was Walter Johnson with four hits. Nate Witte, a third-year rehabilitation science student said there were a lot of positives, such as their offense, in the first game. 

“In the first game our bats really came alive and we put out over 20 runs, so it’s hard to really lose a game when you do that,” Witte said. 

However, they lost their next three matches 20-10, 7-1 and 8-5. Yaeger said despite his three hits in the first game, he was unable to get any more hits in the next games. 

Witte said the final two games were especially difficult since Platteville brought out their star players, which the team was not expecting. 

He said he wasn’t playing his best and wished he had put more effort into getting the 15 or more first-year members of the team more pumped during the game. 

Yaeger said they only have two senior members this year, which may be because the program is a bit newer. 

Murphy said that Platteville was also displaying some decent pitching throughout the games. 

“Unfortunately, we just couldn’t keep up with them,” Murphy said. 

Witte said the team was hoping to win at least two games, and Murphy said that two wins would have been ideal. During the second game, the Blugolds were only able to score once. 

Even though the team lost their final three games, Witte was able to score on a wild pitch during the seventh inning of the final game in addition to scoring twice in the second match. 

Despite the losses, Murphy said that throughout the games both teams were able to score a lot of runs and credits it to the weather on those days. 

“The wind was blowing out to right and there were a lot of home runs to right field,” Yaeger said. 

The Blugolds’ next two games will be against UW-Stout on April 18, and Witte said the team needs to improve on some things moving forward. 

“Our defense has been lacking, we’ve been making some mental mistakes, some errors, and if we can just limit those we can compete with anyone,” Witte said. 

Murphy said despite not playing his best recently, he plans to take the positives of his recent matches to their next games. 

Curtin can be found at [email protected]