WHITEWATER - The task seemed nearly impossible.

    Win three nine-inning games in one day and beat Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rival UW-Oshkosh in back-to-back games.

    But that's exactly what the UW-Stevens Point baseball team did Saturday, clinching the WIAC tournament title and its fourth NCAA Division III tournament berth in five years.

    The Pointers opened the day at 10 a.m. with an 8-3 win over UW-La Crosse to reach the championship round. Then it was a 5-4 win over UW-Oshkosh to set up the final game, which the Pointers also prevailed 3-1, concluding at about 7 p.m. Pairings for the NCAA tournament will be announced early Monday.

    "This was just an unbelievable day," said Pointers' coach Brian Nelson, who also beat UW-Oshkosh twice in one day as a player on the final day of the 1997 NCAA Midwest Regional. "We simply had to take it one game at a time. With seven seniors, these guys remained focused all day and just never quit."

    But it was the underclassmen who were the pitching heroes for the Pointers on Saturday. Freshman Josh Blaha earned the victory in the title game and freshman Jeremy Mueller picked up the win over the Titans in the preceding game. Sophomores Jared Szews and Eric Schlender provided scoreless relief in the title game and junior Bill Verbrick earned saves in both games after pitching nine shutout innings against UW-Whitewater Friday. Sophomore Jeff Pieper also pitched a complete game victory over UW-La Crosse in the opener.

    "Our young pitchers really stepped up today," said Nelson, whose team was making its fifth straight WIAC title game appearance. "They knew what was at stake and I give them so much credit. For Verbrick to come back after nine innings yesterday just shows how bad this team wanted it."

    After UW-Oshkosh scored one run in the third inning of the title game, the Pointers scored all three of their runs in the fourth inning to take the lead. Jon Jagler, who was eight-for-14 for the day and 11-for-21 for the tournament, hit a one-out single to start the rally. After a Kevin Fry single, Pat McCann singled home Jagler to tie the game and Fry scored on an error for a 2-1 lead. Eric Bennett then finished the inning with a run-scoring single.

    Blaha pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowing five hits and one run. Schlender pitched one inning and Szews pitched 1 2/3 innings to set up Verbrick, who pitched the ninth for the save.

    In the earlier game against UW-Oshkosh, Mueller allowed six hits over seven innings before Szews and Verbrick closed out the game for the win. Jagler was four-for-five and McCann was three-for-five as the Pointers pounded out 14 hits.

    Against UW-La Crosse, Pieper allowed eight hits over nine innings while striking out two and walking none to improve to 7-0 for the season. The Pointers jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the fifth inning on a solo home run by Sam Molski, who hit his school record 12^th homer of the season.

    The Pointers are now 29-11. UW-Oshkosh is 29-9 and UW-Whitewater is 30-9 as both teams will have to await possible at-large berths to the NCAA tournament.