UW Oshkosh baseball is now 6-2 and off to a great start to their season after sweeping their opponents in the RussMatt Central Florida Invitation.
The Titans’ pitching staff held it down the first three games of the weekend allowing only five runs, until the final game of the weekend, March 9, where they found themselves in a hitters’ duel against Concordia College-Moorhead (Minnesota).
UWO won 8-7 against Concordia from a walk-off single by Owen Housinger that scored first baseman Zach Taylor. Taylor set the walk off up with a triple that scored shortstop Carter Stebane.
In the first inning, Stebane knocked in center fielder Jake Surane to take an early lead for the Titans, then second baseman Aaron Davis added two more when he hit a double in the second.
Concordia then scored seven unanswered runs until UWO returned with a rally of their own.
Davis scored on a passed ball in the sixth inning, and in the seventh the bats caught heat. Taylor singled and advanced to second off an error by Concordia’s right fielder, which allowed Stebane to reach home. UWO left fielder Jack McKellips knocked in Taylor with a single.
On the mound, five different pitchers made appearances. Titan Brett Gaynor started and went five innings, gave up three earned runs, two walks and struck out six.
Titans relief pitching struggled, forfeiting five runs until Ryan Ritcher came in for Aaron Huibregtse in the top of the seventh and closed Concordia out, not allowing another hitter to reach base while he struck out two.
On March 6, UWO faced Keystone College (Pennsylvania) and won 9-1. The Titans took an early lead thanks to a run-scoring single by right fielder Nick Shiu and a fielding error by Keystone’s right fielder which allowed two baserunners to score.
Connor Brinkman was the starting pitcher for UWO as he went seven scoreless innings with eight strikeouts and only four total baserunners. Huibregtse came in for relief and pitched two innings, allowing Keyson’s only run.
Shiu had another run scoring single in the second inning and Housinger hit his first home run of the season in the fourth, making the Titans lead 5-0.
In the seventh inning second baseman Mason Mirchberg hit a two run single and in the eighth catcher Jack McNamara hit a sacrifice fly that scored Taylor. Housinger scored the Titans final run off a fielding error.
Some notable performances from the bats include McNamara who went 1-for-2 with two walks, two runs and a run batted in, Shiu who was 2-for-5 with two RBIs and a run and Housinger who went 1-for-3 with three runs and a homer.
UWO’s second game of the invitational was against University of Dubuque(Iowa) where they won 9-2. The bats stayed hot, and the pitching continued shutting down opponents.
Connor Walters, the starting pitcher for UWO, pitched eight innings, with eight strikeouts, and only one run allowed in the first inning. Kael Johns took the mound in the ninth and couldn’t quite get it done, Thompson was needed to get the last out of the inning.
The Titans offense had four triples, each coming from Kirchberg, McKellips, Surane and Stebane, leading to seven of the nine runs from UWO in this contest. Stebane went 2-for-5 with three RBIs, and Taylor reached base four of the five times he appeared at the plate. Surane was 3-for-5 at the plate and scored three times.
Titan pitching dominated again as they dismantled Saint Mary’s University (Minnesota) 6-2 in their third game of the invitational.
Josh Jansen won his first game of the season with a seven inning appearance where he struck out 11 batters he faced. In the first inning Saint Mary’s was able to take the lead but Jansen locked in after, allowing only one more run that game in the bottom of the fourth.
The Titans offense wasn’t able to find what they were looking for in the opening innings, only scoring twice until the fifth where they took the lead off Taylor being hit by a pitch. In the seventh Stebane added more insurance for Jansen with an RBI single that scored outfielder Brenden Max. UWO tacked on two more insurance runs in the ninth with hits from McKellips and Housinger.
Housinger had himself a four game stretch going 6-for-16 at the plate along with a home run, a double, three runs batted in and four runs himself. Taylor also went 5-for-13 with a triple and scored in each game, totaling five runs. Stebane continued dominating at the plate as well, he went 9-for-19 (.474 average) from the plate with five runs batted in.
UWO baseball returns March 15 against the University of Chicago (Illinois) at Legends Stadium in Lexington, Kentucky. That same weekend, the Titans will also face No. 26 Transylvania University (Kentucky) twice on March 15 and 16.
