The UW-Platteville baseball team opened their season with a pair of doubleheaders against Fontbonne University on March 7 and Maryville University on March 8.

The first contest against Fontbonne began at 2 p.m. and ended with UW-P in an 8-7 loss.

According to stats received by Paul Erickson, UW-P Sports Information Director, UW-P started off strong in the second game at 5 p.m. against Fontbonne with four runs, four hits and an error by freshman right fielder Shawn Tobie in the first inning. Junior second baseman James Gallagher tacked on a homerun in the second inning.

UW-P junior left fielder Steve Nelson hit another homerun for the Pioneers in the third inning, bringing the score to 3-1.

The Pioneers finished the game with 13 runs scored, 14 hits and one error.
“Coach Frese keeps preching to stick to what we were taught. We all have worked so hard so far and its nice to see some reward for it,” Lee Hawkins, third baseman said. “We still have a long season with much more work to do.”

In the first game against Maryville, the Pioneers had a great start with UW-P scoring eight runs in the fourth inning, bringing them to 16.

Tobie ended the game with two homeruns, and by the time Maryville recorded the last out against UW-P, the Pioneers scored 25 runs, a UW-P school record.

Game two, the Pioneers once again defeated Maryville 16-10. UW-P’s 16 runs came on 12 hits and six errors.

“Preparation really starts at the end of fall practice when we start lifting and running, but as far as our spring practices go, we really focused on defense and pitching,” junior first basemen Steve Bomkamp said.
The team is pleased that they were able to come out of the weekend with three wins, Bomkamp said.

“I think we all came out of the weekend extremely optimistic and really hungry to get more games in and compete at a very high level,” Bomkamp said.

“Levy Ney and Tobie are both freshmen and were both huge producers,” Bomkamp said. “Usually there is some sort of learning curve once you step up levels in competition, but these two made it look like they were veterans and we really are planning on them producing great seasons for us.”

Bomkamp earned WIAC position player of the week as a first basemen.

According to the WIAC Web site Bomkamp had two doubles, two homeruns and 10 RBIs, helping UW-P to a 3-1 start this season.