Matt Scolan holds up the WIAC Tournament championship trophy to the delight of his UW-Whitewater teammates Saturday, May 10 at Prucha Field at Jim Miller Stadium. The Warhawks (44-6) have returned to the NCAA Division III World Series in Eastlake, Ohio where they finished as Division III runners-up in 2024.
OLIVIA ZINANNI/COURTESY OF UWW SPORTS COMMUNICATIONS
Matt Scolan holds up the WIAC Tournament championship trophy to the delight of his UW-Whitewater teammates Saturday, May 10 at Prucha Field at Jim Miller Stadium. The Warhawks (44-6) have returned to the NCAA Division III World Series in Eastlake, Ohio where they finished as Division III runners-up in 2024.
OLIVIA ZINANNI/COURTESY OF UWW SPORTS COMMUNICATIONS
WHITEWATER — The end to the 2025 baseball season is just a week away for the UW-Whitewater Warhawks.
They are among eight NCAA Division III that are in that situation. The other 373 teams have already turned in their uniforms and packed away the bats.
The Warhawks begin play in the 2025 World Series on Friday night at Eastlake, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.
UW-Whitewater takes a 44-6 record into the World Series. Coach John Vodenlich’s squad is seeded third in the 8-team field.
The Warhawks open the double-elimination, 4-team bracket play against No. 6-seed Trinity (Texas) University at 7 p.m. Friday. The Tigers are 41-6.
One final bus trip
The Warhawks boarded a bus early Wednesday morning for their trip to Ohio.
The NCAA flies any team to Cleveland that is outside a 500-mile radius of the host site. UW-Whitewater is three miles inside that radius, Voidenlich said.
Most of the players might recognize some of the sites along the eight-hour journey after they left Whitewater at 7 a.m. Wednesday. The Warhawks took the same trip last season when they lost to Misericordia (Pennsylvania) College 2-1 in the best-of-3 championship series.
Seven of the eight starting position players are back this season along with several pitchers. That should ease the tension that is natural for playing on this big of a stage.
“That absolutely helps,” Vodenlich said of the postseason experience.
No holiday this week
Memorial Day was no day off for the Warhawks and the coaching staff.
The team held an 8 p.m. practice to get reacquainted with playing at night, which the Warhawks will be doing for at least the first game of the World Series.
In addition, the six-piece synthetic mound used in the NCAA Division III Super Regional at Prucha Field at James Miller Stadium on Thursday and Friday against UW-Oshkosh had to be dismantled and returned to the Whitewater High School field. The Prucha Field mound, which has a thinner turf covering than the Whitewater High one, was needed to meet NCAA requirements. On the original mound, pitchers could not wear metal cleats because those could rip and damage the turf covering.
“We took one mound out, and we’re our mound back in,” Vodenlich said mid-Monday morning. “We’ve got to clean the stadium; we have to get all our travel details put together and then we practice at 8.”
Many contributors
While the Warhawks returned a solid nucleus from last season’s national runnerups
Vodenlich said the Warhawks have overcome the loss of Michael Hilker. After going 9-2 with a .87 WHIP and 1.96 ERA in 13 starts as a sophomore on last season’s national runnerup, Hilker transferred to the University of Arizona. He went 2-1 in 11 appearances for the Wildcats this season.
The Warhawks have received steady starting pitching all year from WIAC Pitcher of the Year Max Huseboe, along with Cade Hansen and Jack Hagen. In the Warhawks’ playoff run, Logan Eisenbarth, Brodhead High graduate Brady Malkow and Ben Lee have delivered clutch starts.
Going into the World Series, the Warhawks’ team 3.39 ERA ranks sixth in NCAA Division III. Combined that with the team’s No. 1-ranked batting average of .360 has produced a 44-6 record.
“Certainly this team, in core values, has everything,” Vodenlich said.
Grades match the team’s play
The printout of the team’s grade-point averages is nearly as impressive as its individual hitting and pitching statistics, the head coach said.
“These are guys that are at the field all the time,” Vodenlich said. “Like, when I’m not there, they’re at the field.
“You know what their No. 1 passion is, so sometimes you think (the grades printout) is going to be bad,” Vodenlich said. “But they performed amazingly. We had a bunch of 3.8s and 3.9s, 3.5s.
“I think we only had one or two guys under a 3,” Vodenlich said. “That is not always the case, so you have to give these guys credit.”
Matt Scolan, the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Position Player of the Year, also earned the Max Sparger Scholar Athlete Award for his 3.8 grade-point average with a finance major.
Scolan is hitting .381 with a 1.219 OPS with 17 homers and 57 RBI.
With classes done for the 2024-25 school year, all the players can concentrate on their passion—winning a NCAA Division III championship.
2025 NCAA DIVISON III WORLD SERIES
(Double-elimination then best-of-3 final series)
At Classic Auto Group Park, Eastlake, Ohio
(Seeding in parentheses)
GAMES FRIDAY
Game 1—(4) Endicott (Mass.) College vs. (5) Keane (N.J.) University, 9 a.m.
Game 2—(1) Johns Hopkins (Md.) University vs. (8) Messiah (Pa.) University, 12:15 p.m.
Game 3—(2) Denison (Ohio) University vs. (7) Rowan (N.J.) University, 4:45 p.m.
Game 4—(3) UW-Whitewater vs. (6) Trinity (Texas) University, 7 p.m.
GAMES SATURDAY
Game 5—Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2, 9 a.m.
Game 6—Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2, 12:15 p.m.
Game 7—Loser of Game 3 vs. Loser of Game 4, 3:45 p.m.
Game 8—Winner of Game 3 vs. Winner of Game 4, 7 p.m.
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