Junior Matt Scherrman had eight RBIs in four games to lead the UW Oshkosh baseball team to a 3-1 series win against UW-Stout, which entered Saturday as the top team in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

UWO (10-10, 5-5 WIAC) hit five home runs in the series over the weekend, including a Jake Anderson grand slam and two home runs from Sherrman in blustery conditions at Tiedemann Field at Alumni Stadium.

“These wins were huge, especially coming after a win last Sunday against Whitewater,” infielder Jackson Broom said. “After that series, we got the ball rolling and we feel good right now.”

Oshkosh hit three homers in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader en route to a 11-2 win. UWO fell down 2-0 in the sixth inning, but scored 11 runs in the final three innings. Scherrman led off the sixth with a double and was brought home two batters later by Nick Shiu. Anderson then blasted his grand slam after Broom and Mickey McDowell both reached the bases in back-to-back hits. The Titans scored three runs in both the seventh and eight innings behind a solo homer from Scherrman and a three-run shot from Zach Taylor.

Anderson said that the grand slam felt good coming off the bat.
“I was looking to put the ball in the air because the infield was in,” he said. “I just wanted to get some runs in.”

Anderson added that the grand slam helped boost the team to a victory.
“It’s good to get the boys on top,” he said. “And to put our pitcher ahead and give him a chance to pitch with runs behind him is huge.

Saturday’s nightcap was a much more back-and-forth game before UWO scored nine runs in the final three innings to cruise to a 13-4 win. The Titans were down 2-1 going into the bottom of the fourth inning, but an errant throw from Stout’s third baseman allowed Broom to score, tying the game at two. Eric Modaff hit a deep fly ball to left-center field that brought home two runs as UWO took the 4-2 lead.

Broom would lead off the sixth inning with a solo shot that carried out of the ballpark, sparking a three-run inning. Stout fell apart in the eighth inning, with Oshkosh batting around in the order, as the Titans put up five runs in the inning to put the game to bed.

Broom said he got into a pitch he liked, and the ball went deep.
“I was just looking for a pitch to hit, something out over the plate,” he said. “I was just not trying to do too much.”

In Sunday’s first game of the doubleheader, UWO took an early lead and never looked back in the 5-3 win. Oshkosh went up 4-0 in the third inning after a Connor Gusti RBI single and a Shiu fly ball that was mishandled by the right fielder, allowing two runners to score. Stout pulled to within two in the sixth inning, but Scherrman had his second sac fly of the day to put another Titan run on the board. The Blue Devils only put up one run in the ninth as UWO won their 10th game of the season.

The second game of Sunday’s doubleheader saw Oshkosh commit a season-high six errors as the Titans were dominated by Stout 12-5. Taylor hit a sac fly in the first inning to give UWO an early 1-0 lead, but Stout took the 2-1 lead in the second after a Titan error allowed two runners to score. Two more errors were committed in the fourth inning by Oshkosh, allowing the Blue Devil lead to increase to 7-2. Scherrman hit a home run to left field in the sixth, but it was not enough as Stout scored five runs in the final four innings to claim their only win of the series.

Taylor said the team’s approach to hitting depends on where they are in the count.
“We try to be very selective early in the count looking for a specific pitch that we know we can barrel,” he said. “As we get deeper into counts we shorten up a bit and look to drive the ball to the opposite gap.”

Anderson said the Titans were able to hit so well in the series because of their approach.
“We stick to our approach,” he said. “We have an approach that we all bought in to and it’s been working since the Whitewater series so we all kept with it.”
Broom said that both the batting and pitching were key to the series win.

“I thought when we did see pitches we could hit, we put some really good swings on the ball,” he said. “The whole pitching staff was great because that’s a really good offensive team we played, and we pitched well.”

Stout (14-8, 9-3 WIAC) entered the weekend with a 16 game WIAC win streak, dating back to last year. The Titans won the season series against the Blue Devils for the first time since 2018. UWO went into Sunday with a WIAC-best .974 fielding percentage before committing eight errors on the day.

Anderson said the three wins the Titans picked up against Stout were very important to their season.
“That’s two in a row now,” he said “It’s a good feeling to have a couple of wins under your belt.”

Broom said that being at home for the first time this season really helped the team.
“Everybody was fired up, parents were behind us, the dugout was loud and it felt really good today,” he said.

The Titans will take on Finlandia University (3-19, 0-12 WIAC) in back-to-back WIAC doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday at Tiedemann Field at Alumni stadium.