WHITEWATER, Wisconsin – The Ripon baseball program competed hard against one of the top teams in the country on Tuesday afternoon, falling to #2/2 UW-Whitewater 10-8 at Jim Miller Stadium in the Red Hawks' season finale.
 
Whitewater (35-4) got on the board in the first inning as a two-out, two-run homer gave the Warhawks a 2-0 lead. Then, Ripon (17-23) surrendered another run in the inning on an RBI single. UWW added one more run in the second to lead 4-0 through two complete.
 
Ripon got a run back in the third as Remington Cox singled home Brock Peterson, who led off the inning with a double. After putting the first two runners on in the fourth, a two-run triple by Gabriel Zielinski brought the Red Hawks within a run. The next at-bat, Peterson tied the game with a sacrifice fly.
 
Whitewater regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth, and added another single run in the fifth. However, Ripon responded in the sixth. An RBI single by Zielinski and RBI double by Peterson knotted the score at six. The Red Hawks had the bases loaded with nobody out in the inning, but could not cash in further.
 
After shutting Ripon down in the seventh, the Warhawks scored twice in the bottom half to reclaim an 8-6 lead. A two-run homer extended the hosts lead to 10-6 in the eighth, but Ripon scored again in the ninth on a Zielinski run-scoring single. The tying run came to the plate in the inning, and Peterson singled home Jack Anderson to bring Ripon closer. The tying run was on base, but a strikeout ended the game and gave UWW the win.
 
Zielinski was 4-for-5 with 4 RBI and a run scored to lead Ripon, while Peterson also had a three-hit game (3x4, 3 RBI, run). Those two combined for seven of the Red Hawks' 12 hits, while Cox (2x4, RBI) also had a multi-hit outing.
 
David Neal Hickman got the start on the mound, earning a no-decision. He went four innings, allowing eight hits and five earned runs. Rex Bayer took the loss, pitching 1.2 innings and allowing two earned runs.
 
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