The UW Oshkosh baseball team scored a combined 28 runs in two games as the Titans defeated UW-Eau Claire 16-1 and 12-6, respectively, in both games of their doubleheader April 8 at Tiedemann Field.

With the victories, Oshkosh (15-5, 6-2 WIAC) moved up to No.22 in the d3baseball.com Top 25 rankings and UWO is now tied with UW-Whitewater for second place in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

In the first game, UWO batters had 16 hits,13 RBIs and forced four Eau Claire (5-13, 0-8 WIAC) errors. Defensively, the Titans gave up just seven hits and did not allow a walk in the game.

UWO starting pitcher LJ Waco picked up his third win of the season to remain undefeated on the year, allowing no runs on four hits and striking out five batters in the contest. Jordan Skenandore pitched two innings of relief for the Titans, giving up one run on three hits and striking out two batters.

UWO catcher Hunter Fredrick said the starting pitching was the biggest factor in the series sweep of Eau Claire.

“Our starting pitchers were dominant against the Blugolds in every game of the series,” he said. “LJ (Waco), Connor (Brinkman) and Cameron (Mulvihill) all pitched really well, and that shows we have some of the best pitchers in the conference.”

UWO’s Connor Giusti went 4-for-5 in the game with four singles and two runs scored to lead all Titan batters. Chase Marsh had a five-RBI game, going 2-for-4 with a three-run home run, a single, and four runs scored.

The game was scoreless until the fourth inning, when the Titans put three runs on the board to take an early lead. Nicholas Shiu kicked off the scoring with a solo homer to left field and Marsh hit into a fielder’s choice, driving in a run. Later in the inning, UWO’s Jake Surane hit an RBI triple to increase the Titan lead to 3-0.

In the next inning, Oshkosh drove in five more runs from a Mason Kirchberg RBI single, a UWEC fielding error and a three-run blast to left field from Marsh. UWO’s lead grew to 10-0 in the seventh inning, when Zach Taylor was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Shiu hit a sacrifice fly to center field. The lone Blugold run came in the bottom of the seventh inning, when Andrew Murphy hit a solo home run to right field.

The Titans exploded for six runs in the top of the eighth inning behind a two-RBI double from Matt Scherrman, an RBI single from Marsh and a failed pickoff attempt from the UWEC starting pitcher. UWO built a 15-run lead by the eighth inning, and the contest ended due to the NCAA’s 10-run rule.

Fredrick said UWO’s batting and defense really helped the team over the weekend.

“I don’t think we had an error in any of the games against Eau Claire which shows how strong our defense is,” he said. “Everyone really hit the ball well on the offensive side, which allowed us to tack on so many runs.”

In the second game, Oshkosh scored in each of the first four innings to cruise to a 12-6 victory.

UWO’s Cameron Mulvihill won his third game of the season, giving up five runs on seven hits and striking out two batters in 6.1 innings on the mound. Trey Tennessen pitched one inning of relief, allowing one run on four hits. Logan King came in as the closing pitcher for the final two innings, giving up one hit and no runs to pick up his first save of the year.

Scherrman went a perfect 5-for-5 with five singles, three RBIs and two runs scored to lead all Titan batters in the game. Taylor finished with three RBIs as well, going 2-for-6 with a double, a home run and a run scored.

The two teams traded runs in the first inning, with Scherrman hitting an RBI single in the top half of the inning and Murphy responding with an RBI single for Eau Claire in the bottom of the first inning. Marsh doubled in the second inning, driving in a run and putting Oshkosh on top 2-1. In the third inning, Taylor blasted a two-run homer to left field and UWO’s lead grew to three runs.

The Titans added another three runs in the fourth inning when Scherrman hit an RBI single, Taylor hit an RBI double and UWEC’s pitcher tossed a wild pitch. In the bottom of the inning, Eau Claire’s Walter Johnson hit a sacrifice fly and the Blugolds cut the deficit to 7-2.

Oshkosh tacked on two runs in the sixth inning from an Ethan Schreier RBI single and a Scherrman sacrifice fly to give UWO a seven-run cushion. UWEC responded with three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and the Blugolds added another run in the seventh inning, but UWO scored three runs in the ninth inning to cruise to its 15th win of the season.

The doubleheader was originally scheduled to be played in Eau Claire but was moved to Oshkosh due to poor weather conditions. In both games, UWEC served as the home team.

The Titans will take on UW-Stout (10-6, 3-5 WIAC) on the road in a doubleheader at Nelson Field April 15.