Courtesy Trinity Sports Information

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. - Junior 2B Nicholas Teach (New Berlin, Wisc.) went 2-for-4 with three RBI, including the game-winning RBI in the sixth inning, to lead the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Warhawks to an 8-3 win over the Trinity College Bantams in the opening round of the NCAA Division III National Baseball Championship Tournament this afternoon at Fox Cities Stadium.

Trinity, ranked No. 1 in New England and No. 5 in the nation, drops to 35-8 with its first loss in five games and will play Wartburg in a second round elimination game tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. Wartburg lost the second game of the afternoon, 8-1, against Chapman, which will face Wisc.-Whitewater tomorrow in the winner’s bracket at 4:30 p.m. The Warhawks, ranked No. 1 in the nation, improves to 42-7 with their second straight win.

With the game tied at 3-3 after five innings, the Warhawks scored twice in the sixth and three times in the eighth frame, while senior southpaw Kevin Tomasiewicz (Sleepy Hollow, Ill.) held the Bantams scoreless from the sixth to the eighth inning to earn the win on the mound. The Warhawks scored their sixth inning runs off Trinity sophomore Jon Rappaport (Longmeadow, Mass.) on a hit-by-pitch, a single by freshman 3B Greg Harder (Waukesha, Wisc.), a run-scoring groundout by Teach, and an RBI triple by senior SS Ross Klawitter (Janesville, Wisc.).

Trinity came back from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2, scoring twice in the bottom of the third inning on four singles and once in the fifth frame on a double by senior OF Aaron Goldstein (Edina, Minn.) and a sacrifice fly by senior co-captain C Andrew Fries (Dublin, Ohio). In the third inning, senior 2B Bill Wise (East Longmeadow, Mass.) and senior co-captain 3B Jeff Natale (Hamden, Conn.) hit back-to-back, one-out singles and Fries and sophomore 1B Ben Silvanic (Granby, Conn.) followed with successive, two-out, RBI singles. Goldstein smashed the ball to right-center with one out in the fifth and hustled to third when the ball was bobbled in the outfield to set Fries up for his second RBI of the game.

Trinity junior RHP Greg Talpey (Westbrook, Conn.) started the game, allowing two runs on two hits in the second inning on two walks, a hit, and a two-RBI single by Teach. The Warhawks added one more run off Talpey in the fourth on a walk, a sacrifice bunt, an infield hit, and an RBI groundout by Harder, before Rappaport came to the mound to start the fifth inning. Rappaport pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning and yielded to freshman Michael Regan (West Roxbury, Mass.) in the eighth, but the Warhawks touched up the righty for three insurance runs on three hits, a sacrifice fly and a hit batsman. Bantam junior RHP Kyle Cox (Hinsdale, Ill.) struck out two and allowed just one hit over the final five outs on the mound.