Over the past week, the UW Oshkosh baseball team played six games against UW-Whitewater and UW-Stevens Point. UWO lost both games in its doubleheader at home against the Warhawks on Wednesday, but returned the favor by winning all four games over the weekend at Stevens Point.
The first game of the doubleheader against No. 1 UW-Whitewater foreshadowed how the day would go. UWO was able to hang in with the Warhawks for the first couple of innings, only down 3-2. Unfortunately for the Titans, the Warhawks were able to pull away thanks to an Eli Frank sacrifice fly in the fifth that started a 5-0 unanswered scoring run in the immediate innings for UWW to go up 8-2. Despite scoring three combined runs in the seventh and eighth innings for the Titans, UWO was unable to come back as UWW pulled away to an easy 11-5 game one win.
The second game of the doubleheader started out well for the Titans, as a Zach Taylor single scored Nick Shiu and Jake Surane to go up 2-0. The only problem for UWO is that the Warhawks did a lot of damage with home runs. In the second inning, UWW immediately took the lead with a three-run home run to go up 3-2. The Titans were able to respond with back-to-back doubles from Owen Housinger and Jack McNamara, sparking a four-run inning to reclaim the lead at 6-3. Again, the Warhawks immediately responded with back-to-back home runs to lower the gap to 6-5. Both teams were able to put a run across later to make it 7-6, but where the damage really happened for Whitewater was in the top of the sixth. The Warhawks took advantage of a hit-by-pitch by following it up with a go-ahead two-run homer to go up 8-7. Whitewater followed it up with another two-run home run to extend the lead to 10-7. A hit-by-pitch, a throwing error and a single loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth for the Titans, but unfortunately, they weren’t able to get any of those runs home as UWW closed out a 10-7 win.
UWO was able to rebound with a big weekend against UW-Stevens Point. The Titans swept the Pointers in all four games and outscored them 39-10. UWO opened the first game of the doubleheader, going up 5-0 in the fourth behind four runs batted in from Shiu. UWO was able to take the game one win behind Shiu’s 6 RBI game and eight innings pitched from Connor Brinkman, where he only allowed one run on three hits and struck out eight.
UWO won the next three games with scores of 12-3, 5-3, and 14-4. The only game that was close this series was the first game of the doubleheader on Sunday, where the Titans won it 5-3.
UWO opened that game with an RBI single from Shiu to go up 1-0 in the second. All of the damage happened in the fifth and sixth innings for the Titans. In the fifth, UWO put two across thanks to a Carter Stebane sacrifice fly and a Housinger RBI single. The Titans put two more across in the sixth with a Schill single and Surane reaching on a fielding error to go up 5-0. Those runs in the sixth ended up being the difference due to UWSP putting up a three-run inning in the eighth inning behind three RBI singles to make it 5-3. Josh Jansen earned his sixth win of the season for UWO. Jansen pitched seven innings, allowing no runs on seven hits while striking out five. Nick Rector got the save, pitching the last inning and a half, striking out two while allowing no hits.
The Titans now shift its attention to one more regular season series this weekend at UW-Stout in Menomonie for back-to-back doubleheaders. The first game of the doubleheader is on Friday May 2 and will start at 1 p.m. The first game of the doubleheader the next day, Saturday May 3, will start at noon.
