UW-Whitewater grateful for annual trip to Pensacola for 'critical' early-season baseball trip

• The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater baseball team's annual trip to Pensacola, Florida is crucial for their development and spring training.
• The Studer’s Blue Wahoos Challenge features nine NCAA Division III teams playing 28 games over several days.
• Quint and Rishy Studer, owners of the Blue Wahoos and Wisconsin-Whitewater alumni, have been instrumental in making this event possible.
• Wisconsin-Whitewater's coach, John Vodenlich, recently set the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference record for most wins.

Months of planning and days of travel have created an annual mid-March excursion by the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater baseball team viewed beyond a spring getaway into better weather.

It is considered a vital component of the team’s future.

“Almost every program at our level now ... all the programs are taking trips. Our trip is unique, because it’s a necessity,” said Wisconsin-Whitewater’s decorated coach John Vodenlich, who guided his team to a national runner-up finish in the 2024 NCAA Division III College World Series.

“We’re not doing this because we want to have a nice beachfront place and hang out (on Pensacola Beach),” he said. “Although that is very nice, we do this because it is at the center of our development piece.

“We’re not just going down (from Wisconsin to Pensacola) to play some games and have some fun. We’re going down to really grind. It is a critical element of what we do to develop the team and it’s a legitimate spring training venue.”

The Warhawks (4-0), ranked No. 1 in Division III, arrived Monday with 35 players, plus the coaching staff and support personnel. Hours later, they played a scrimmage game against Edgewood College from Madison, Wisconsin.

It began the Studer’s Blue Wahoos Challenge 2025.

The full schedule of 28 games among nine NCAA Division III teams began Tuesday and will continue through March 18. There are five Wisconsin teams – Concordia, Carroll, Wisconsin-Stout, Edgewood, Whitewater – plus one team from Iowa (Grinnell College), one from Tennessee (Suwanee) and one from Texas (LeTourneau University). Huntington College from Montgomery is also part of this tournament.

Grinnell and Whitewater staged a riveting first game Tuesday, combining for 23 hits, four lead changes and the Warhawks getting a 9-8 walk-off win in the ninth.

Now in its fifth year, the Studer’s Blue Wahoos Challenge began from an invitation in 2019 by Blue Wahoos owners Quint and Rishy Studer, both Wisconsin-Whitewater graduates, to utilize the stadium for a spring break tournament. In the past, Whitewater and other teams traveled elsewhere in Florida.

The event was postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, Vodenlich has handled the logistical hurdles of putting the event together.

“We start with those who have been there in the past and it kind of spreads through word of mouth, people hear about it and they contact us,” he said. “Really the bottleneck is simply the dates, because everyone is on a different spring training date.

“And if the dates work, we tell ‘em we’d love to have them, and if the dates don’t work we tell them to stay in touch for future years.”

Wisconsin-Whitewater has its campus spring break later in March. It is the week the baseball team begins its conference play. During the team’s stay in Pensacola, classroom work is maintained.

“We could not take a spring training trip if we waited for our (university) spring break, because our conference always opens that weekend,” said Vodenlich, now in his 22nd season at Whitewater.  

The team raises money to make the trip to Pensacola and knows that Quint and Rishy Studer have helped make it all possible. Quint Studer credits the university for taking a chance on him for acceptance as a high school senior without stellar grades. He has never forgotten that opportunity and what it meant in his life.

In turn, Vodenlich is grateful for a friendship with the Studers.

“Quint and the Blue Wahoos have done so much for us. It is a critical element of what we do to develop the team,” Vodenlich said. “What we have done over the last five or six years in our program would be next to impossible if not Quint Studer and the Blue Wahoos.

“It is very powerful. … I consider Quint a dear friend. As I look at my relationship with friends, they are very giving. In Quint’s case, I’m still trying to find a way to reciprocate his kindness. I hope one day there will be something where I can reciprocate.”

After a historic 2024 season that featured the Warhawks tying the school record for most wins (45) and establishing single-season records in games played, hits, runs batted in, runs scored, total bases and strikeouts, the team’s opening series in 2025 provided Vodenlich another milestone feat.

He set the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) record for most wins during the team’s three-game opening series sweep. He entered Wednesday’s game with 732 victories.

“It says a lot about our program,” Vodenlich said. “We’ve been good for a long time. I’ve had the privilege of coaching some amazing players.

“Somone told me about that milestone last year and had done the math (34.6 wins per year). Of course, we could have received that accolade had we won the last game of the year (for the national title), which would have been really cool. Winning that last game really what our goal was.

“But it is always nice to receive recognition for your life’s work and most importantly for all those players and coaches who have been in our program.”

When the Warhawks finished last year’s Blue Wahoos Challenge with a 7-1 record, Vodenlich had a good feeling about that team. They Warhawks overcame injuries to four starters, got hot in May and made the run into the Division III CWS championship series in Eastlake, Ohio.

They forced a deciding game against Misericordia University, located in northeast Pennsylvania, before losing Game 3,

"The tough dynamic in all sports – but baseball I think is even a little bit above it – timing is important,” said Vodenlich, who led Whitewater to national titles in 2014 and 2003. “How you are playing at the end of the year, how you match up, there’s an element of luck there.

“I think the most impressive piece for me is that we had four serious injuries. We were able to grind through a lot of adversity amd injuries. By the end of the season, the pistons were really pumping and we were playing pretty good baseball.

“I knew we could be special. I feel the same way about it this year. We have eight starters returning, which is unheard of at our level. But we did lose some very good pitching. A lot of things have to happen for us to be where we want to be.”

The championship run included an elimination game win against Birmingham Southern, a team that played in the 2024 Blue Wahoos Challenge and then got word the baseball program was being eliminated and the entire college was shutting down after 170 years of existence.

It became a national story. The game between the two teams at the Division III CWS was a focal point in the college baseball world. Whitewater won the game with a walkoff hit.

“There was a buzz around that team that made it as if it were a national championship game,” Vodenlich said. “You never really compare one year to another.  But last year it was one amazing moment after another. And people stepping up and strange things happening.

“It was certainly one of the most memorable years if you pick it out month-by-month, game-by-game. Just a lot of amazing things happened.”

WANT TO GO?

WHAT: 2025 Studer’s Blue Wahoos Challenge

WHEN: Event runs through March 18

WHERE: Blue Wahoos Stadium

WHO: Wisconsin-Whitewater is host. Eight other NCAA Division III teams participating.

FORMAT: Four games per-day are scheduled through Sunday. Three games Monday (March 17), two games on March 18. Games begin at 10 a.m. Schedule available on www.bluewahoos.com

ADMISSION: $10 for full-day pass (allows re-entry and all games that day).

PARKING: Free

CONCESSIONS: Available on third base side.

Bill Vilona is a retired Pensacola News Journal sports columnist and now senior writer for Pensacola Blue Wahoos. He can be reached at bvilona@bluewahoos.com