STEVENS POINT, Wis. - The No. 4 seeded Augustana baseball team was defeated 6-4 by the No. 1 seeded UW-Stevens Point Pointers in the first round of the NCAA Regional on Friday. 

Augustana trotted out right-handed pitcher Harrison Boushele to open the game. Boushele faced 11 batters over the first three innings, striking out four to keep the Pointers at bay until a three-run fourth inning, sparked by a two-run home run, provided the home team the game's first lead. Augie left five runners on base through the first four frames before scoring their first run of the game in the fifth. With two outs and a runner on first base, Matt Ozanic ripped an RBI double to right center to trim the deficit to two and put the Vikings on the board. The Pointers replied in the bottom of the inning, pushing their lead out to 6-1 behind a run-scoring double and a two-run home run. 

The Vikings began to claw their way back into the game in the sixth inning, loading the bases behind a pair of singles and a Stevens Point error. Inserted to pinch hit, Ethan Sosnowski singled to score Dymitri Kanellakis from third prior to Alex Simon drawing a hit-by-pitch to trot Chase Maifield home and cut the Pointers' lead in half. In the top of the eighth, Alec McGinnis hit an RBI single to left field to bring the score to 6-4, a score that remained through the conclusion of the contest.  

Augie outhit the Pointers 10-7 in the loss, with two hits each from Maifield, McGinnis, and Vrbancic. Anthony Sus entered in the sixth frame, striking out two Pointers and allowing zero runs across three innings.

Augustana will face either Loras or Webster tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. in an elimination game from Zimmerman Field.