Box Score

Grand Chute, Wis. - Just give head coach John Vodenlich the time and place, and he will bring his University of Wisconsin-Whitewater baseball team.

In the wake of the Warhawks’ 10-2 victory Saturday (May 24) over the State University of New York-Cortland in an elimination game at the finals of the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship, all Vodenlich needed were the details on the next game.

“I don’t know who we play. I don’t know what time the game is. I don’t know anything other than we won today, we’re going to enjoy dinner tonight and then we’re going to strap it up and play tomorrow,” Vodenlich said.

“Before we start talking about Tuesday or Monday, we had to win today.”

UW-Whitewater (40-9) advances to play at noon on Sunday (May 25) against either Chapman University (Calif.) or Johns Hopkins University (Md.) at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium. Cortland (42-5) entered the finals on a 38-win streak but went 0-2 in the finals.

“Going into the game we wanted to battle, we wanted to play hard, but we fell short,” Cortland senior John Giametta Jr., said.

“It was an incredible season. The best season I’ve ever been a part of," added Giametta Jr. The 38-game winning streak was phenomenal, it really was. No one paid any mind to it though. We came out every game and wanted to win. Nobody cared about how many we won. The next nine-inning game was all we worried about.”

The Warhawks got a stellar pitching performance from senior Adam Dominick and rode that to the victory. He went the distance, allowed seven hits, struck out five and walked two.

“The seniors were all trying to pull together and we were just trying to make it seem like a normal game – one pitch at a time,” Dominick said.

“He’s a senior and he’s been here and he’s had a great year,” Vodenlich said. “There were some times when we had some errors and (Dominick) had to pitch deeper than he had to had we picked up the ball. We stayed out of one error compounding into two errors compounding into a walk and then a hit. We stayed out of the big inning, and I thought that was critical.”

Cortland got on the board first in the bottom of the second with the help of an error. After Matt Vitalone led off the inning with a single, Andersen Gardner struck out. A throwing error on Giametta’s ground ball allowed runners to reach second and third. Vitalone then scored on John Zilnicki’s ground out.

UW-Whitewater tied it in the top of the third when Joe Munn led off with a double and later scored on Ben Kuhlmann’s fielder’s choice ground ball.

The Warhawks grabbed a 3-1 lead in the fourth when Kevin Zalnis blasted a one-out, two-run homer down the left field line.

“I stepped in looking for a fastball and got it,” Zalnis said.

UW-Whitewater added to its lead in the sixth when Jeff Donovan drew a one-out walk and scored on Ben Prather’s two-out double.

The Warhawks made it 6-1 with a pair of runs in the seventh. Donovan delivered the big blow in the inning with a run-scoring double.

Cortland got a run back in the bottom half of the seventh when Joey Russo reached on an error, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a ground out by Adam Dimino. Dimino had two of the Red Dragons' seven hits.