The UW Oshkosh baseball team improved its record to 22-14 after winning four of its last five games, including going 3-1 at the UW-Stout Blue Devils in WIAC play on Friday and Saturday.

The 3-1 series against Stout improved the Titans WIAC record to 11-5 as they sit in second place, two games below first-place UW-Whitewater who the Titans play this weekend for a chance to take home the WIAC title.

Titans’ head coach Kevin Tomasiewicz said he is happy with how his team played, but with a big weekend coming up against first-place Whitewater, the Titans need to be ready.

“We still have the best team in the league to play and we are two games behind them,” Tomasiewicz said. “It’s fun, this is the first time in this program in a long time that we had an opportunity in the last weekend to win the conference championship.”

In the first game of the series against Stout, the Titans lost by a score of 2-12 in seven innings in a game where Blue Devil’s starting pitcher, Derek Graves, allowed two runs on six hits.

The Titans got off to a fast start in the first after senior outfielder Johnny Eagan hit a two-run homer that brought in Kozlowski, who was on first after hitting a single.

The Titans were able to keep the Blue Devils from scoring in the bottom of the first and after a scoreless second inning for both teams, the Titans had the lead going into the third inning 2-0.

After a scoreless top of the third for the Titans, the Blue Devils tied the game in the bottom of the frame after a fielding error for Oshkosh allowed Stout to score two runs.

The score was tied until the bottom of the fifth, when the Blue Devils brought in three runs, two of which came from fielding errors on the Titans, to take the lead 2-5.

A scoreless sixth inning led to a seven-run bottom of the seventh for the Blue Devils as they pulled away at the end to win 2-12.

Despite the loss in the opener, the Titans managed to bounce back in game two on Friday, winning 8-5. In a game where the Blue Devils had the lead going into the ninth, the Titans managed to pull away with four runs and take home a victory.

Both teams got things started in the first inning scoring two a piece, and after a scoreless second frame, the Titans and the Blue Devils went into the third tied 2-2.

The Titans managed to take the lead in the top of the third from a sacrifice fly from Eagan that scored junior shortstop Jack Paulson. After holding Stout to no runs in the bottom of the third, the Titans held the lead 3-2.

A scoreless top of the fourth for the Titans led to Stout hitting a home run in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game back at 3-all.

After managing to hold to Titans to zero runs in the seventh, Stout was in the lead 3-4 after scoring in the bottom of the sixth.

Both teams tacked on a run in the eighth inning to make the score 4-5 Stout.

The Titans had one more at-bat in the top of the ninth, and they managed to score four runs to take the lead and earn the victory.

The first two runs came on a two-RBI hit from junior catcher Taylor Grimm that scored both sophomore outfielders Sam Schwenn and Zach Radde, who both got on base via the free pass.

With the bases loaded, senior shortstop Tyler Kozlowski was walked, bringing home Grimm.

The final run of the game came from an Eagan RBI that brought in Paulson to make the score 8-5 Titans.

Game one on Saturday was a close 3-2 victory for the Titans in a game that was tied until the go-ahead run in for UWO in the top of the seventh.

The game started with Stout taking the lead in the bottom of the first.

It was not until the top of the fourth that the Titans got on the board after scoring two runs. The first came from a fielding error on Stout on a single from junior outfielder Logan Reckert that scored sophomore outfielder Alex Koch, who was on second.

The second run of the fourth for the Titans came from a Paulson single that scored Reckert and made the score 2-1 Titans.

Stout tied the game in the bottom of the fifth with a run, but the Titans responded in the top of the seventh after a Reckert single that scored Grimm and gave UWO the go-ahead run.

After the rest of the game went scoreless the Titans won, 3-2.

In game two on Saturday the Titans won by their biggest margin of the weekend with a score of 15-5.

The Blue Devils managed to take the early lead in the bottom of the first by scoring three runs after holding the Titans to zero.

The Titans got on the board in the top of the second from a sac-fly from sophomore outfielder Dylan Ott that scored Koch, who was on base from a single.

Stout was quick to counter in the bottom of the second by tacking on another run to extend the lead to 1-4.

After four scoreless innings for the Titans and another added run from the Blue Devils, Stout seemed to be running away with the game with a lead of 1-5 by the start of the seventh.

The Titans managed to finally counter the Blue Devils in the top of the seventh after scoring two runs.

The first came from an RBI from Ott that scored Reckert and the second was from a sac-fly from junior second baseman Noah Polcyn that scored Radde.

Going into the eighth inning Stout still had the lead 3-5, but after keeping the Blue Devils from scoring for the rest of the game and scoring 12 runs between the eighth and ninth inning, the Titans pulled away with the 15-5 victory.

On Wednesday, May 3, the Titans beat Edgewood College at home by a score of 6-1.

After going 3-4 against Stout, Reckert said he feels the team is peaking at the right time but they also need to make sure to continue to play hard and realize there is still a long way to go.

“We cannot get ahead of ourselves,” Reckert said. “We have an extremely important weekend coming up. This weekend will put our team to the test, and it is crucial for us to come together and continue to play as a team. We are determined to finish the season out strong as a team.”

Grimm said the series against Whitewater is going to be filled with excitement and the stakes are going to be high, but he said that is when the team plays their best.

“We just gotta go out there and play loose,” Grimm said. “We play better with our backs up against the wall. Ultimately at the end of the day we just gotta have fun and play like we can. When we put all three facets together we are a pretty dangerous team.”

Sitting two games behind Whitewater the Titans need to sweep the Warhawks to win the WIAC.

The Titans play their last four game WIAC series on May 5 and 6 against UW-Whitewater.