Titans Capture WIAC Postseason Berth
UW-Oshkosh earned the fourth seed at the WIAC Baseball Championship with a dramatic walk-off victory in the first game of the day and went on to sweep a doubleheader from UW-Platteville on Sunday (May 3) at Tiedemann Field.
The Titans, needing to win at least one game on Sunday to clinch the fourth and final seed at the conference postseason tournament, overcame a two-run deficit in the 10th inning with three runs after two were out for a thrilling 8-7 triumph. UW-Oshkosh defeated UW-Platteville, 9-6, in the nightcap to complete the sweep of the four-game weekend series.
UW-Oshkosh (25-15, 14-10 WIAC) will face host and top seed UW-Whitewater (30-7, 18-6 WIAC) on Friday (May 8) at 10 a.m. in the first game of the four-team, double-elimination WIAC Championship. Second-seeded UW-La Crosse (28-10, 17-7 WIAC) will play third-seeded UW-Stevens Point (27-11, 16-8 WIAC) in Friday's second contest.
In Sunday's first game, UW-Platteville scored two runs in the top of the 10th inning on consecutive run-scoring hits. Tanner Galeazzi drove in the go-ahead run with a single and Evan Greco followed with a double to plate Galeazzi for a 7-5 Pioneer lead.
UW-Oshkosh catcher Cooper Lang started the bottom of the 10th inning with a single, but remained at first with two outs. John Eagan started the comeback by missing a potential game-tying home run by mere inches when the ball hit the top of the fence in left-center field and bounced back onto the field of play for a run-scoring double.
Luke Gajewski laced a double to right field to drive home Eagan with the tying run. After Tyler Kozlowski walked, Titan first baseman Andy Brahier greeted new UW-Platteville relief pitcher Eric Curtis with a walk-off double to center field.
Brahier went 4-for-6 with two doubles, one run and three runs batted in. Lang added three hits while Eagan, Gajewski, Robbie Kleman and Jack Paulson added two hits apiece. The Titans pounded out 17 hits in the clinching victory, including eight doubles.
UW-Oshkosh's Adam Rude (4-2), making his third relief appearance in eight games pitched this season, recorded the final two outs in the 10th inning to pick up the win.
Brahier's run-scoring double gave Titan starting pitcher Matt Sabel a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Sabel pitched the first five innings, allowing just one run on three hits and three walks.
Lang's two-run double and Noah Polcyn's two-out, run-scoring single increased UW-Oshkosh's advantage to 4-0 in the fourth inning. UW-Platteville then tallied one run in the sixth inning and three in the seventh to tie the game at 4 on a run-scoring groundout by Kyle Reinhart.
The Titans reclaimed a 5-4 lead on Brahier's single in the bottom of the seventh inning, but Galeazzi drove home the tying run on a single off of UW-Oshkosh's Ryan Chancellor in the eighth.
Trevor Hall suffered the loss for UW-Platteville, ceding three runs on five hits and three walks in 3.2 innings. Hall, the third of four pitchers used by the Pioneers, entered with runners at the corners and no outs in the seventh inning.
George Jester paced the Pioneers with four hits. Galeazzi and Greco both added two of UW-Platteville's 11 hits.
In the nightcap, UW-Oshkosh starting pitcher Jesse Sustacheck settled in after a shaky first inning before turning the game over to Adam Rude in the ninth.
Sustacheck (5-0) scattered 11 hits over eight innings, allowing six runs (four earned) to pick up the victory. He struck out five and walked two.
Rude pitched a scoreless ninth inning to notch his first save of the season.
Kozlowski went 4-for-5 with one run batted in to pace UW-Oshkosh, which collected 16 hits in the game and 62 in the pivotal four-game series.
Brahier, Eagan, Kleman and Polcyn added two hits each in Sunday's second contest.
UW-Platteville (21-19, 12-12 WIAC) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Pioneer designated hitter Bobby Bean delivered a two-out, two-run double and Jester followed with a single to drive home Bean.
Brahier got the Titans going with a run-scoring single in the first inning before UW-Oshkosh knotted the score at 3 with two runs in the second.
Bean hit another two-out, run-scoring double in the third inning for a 4-3 UW-Platteville advantage, but the Titans answered with two runs in the third and led the rest of the game. A run-scoring double by Lang brought home the tying run, and Lang came in to score on a throwing error.
UW-Oshkosh tacked on a run in the fourth inning, before receiving run-scoring doubles by Eagan in the fifth inning, Kleman in the sixth and Kozlowski in the seventh.
UW-Platteville starting pitcher Ben Zwitter (1-1) took the loss, yielding five runs (three earned) on nine hits and one walk over the first three innings.
The Pioneers collected 13 hits, including two each by Bean, Galeazzi, Jester, Collin Deboer and Zack Iverson.