Titans Begin Baseball Schedule In Hoosier State
The two-time national champion UW-Oshkosh baseball program opens the 2018 season with three games this weekend in Westfield, Ind.
UW-Oshkosh (22-20 record in 2017) takes on Wabash College (Ind.) (22-16) and Transylvania University (13-24) on Saturday (Feb. 24). The Titans conclude their trip to the Hoosier state with a single game against Transylvania University on Sunday (Feb. 25). All games will be played at the Grand Park Sports Complex.
The Titans defeated Transylvania University, 8-4, last season while UW-Oshkosh and Wabash College will meet for the first time.
UW-Oshkosh's slate of 40 games this season includes trips to three states, 15 home contests and 11 games against teams that reached the 2017 NCAA Division III Championship. The Titans, who won national championships in 1985 and 1994, are seeking their fourth consecutive WIAC tournament appearance and 13th winning season in 16 years.
Following the season-opening trek to Indiana, UW-Oshkosh travels to Minneapolis, Minn., to play a doubleheader against University of St. Thomas (Minn.) (29-18) in U.S. Bank Stadium, home of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings and site of Super Bowl LII.
University of St. Thomas, the two-time defending Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion, enters the season ranked 19th in the country by D3baseball.com after reaching the national tournament a year ago. The Titans beat two-time national champion (2001 and 2009) University of St. Thomas, 3-2, last season in Florida.
UW-Oshkosh then journeys to Auburndale, Fla., for seven games in eight days from March 16-23.
The Titans commence their trip to the Sunshine State against Ripon College (9-26) on March 16 and The College of St. Scholastica (Minn.) (34-10) on March 17.
The College of St. Scholastica, which has made 14 consecutive NCAA postseason appearances and won each of the past 21 regular season titles in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference, won a pair of one-run games over UW-Oshkosh last season.
UW-Oshkosh wraps up its trip to Florida with games against Lawrence University (5-29-1) on March 18, Washington & Jefferson College (Pa.) (42-13) on March 19, Grinnell College (Iowa) (20-16) on March 21, Benedictine University (Ill.) (24-18) on March 22 and Thomas College (Maine) (7-31-1) on March 23.
Washington & Jefferson College, the 2017 Presidents' Athletic Conference champion, is the reigning national runner-up after falling by a 7-3 score to California Lutheran University in the third game of the best-of-three championship series in Appleton.
UW-Oshkosh defeated Washington & Jefferson College, 4-1, last season in Florida.
Grinnell College, which is among five defending conference champions on UW-Oshkosh's 2018 schedule, clinched the Midwest Conference South Division title last season.
UW-Oshkosh plays its home opener against Wisconsin Lutheran College (16-21) on March 28 at Tiedemann Field.
The Titans remain at home for doubleheaders against Milwaukee School of Engineering (21-21) on March 31 and the WIAC opener against UW-Stevens Point (22-19) on April 3. UW-Oshkosh also hosts UW-Stevens Point for a pair of games on April 17.
UW-Oshkosh continues league play with a doubleheader at fourth-ranked and defending WIAC champion UW-Whitewater (36-9) on April 11 before returning home for a four-game series with Illinois Institute of Technology (11-28) on April 14-15.
Illinois Institute of Technology, an affiliate baseball member of the WIAC this season, joins the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference in 2019.
The Titans travel to UW-Platteville (19-21) for four games on April 21-22 and complete the regular season series at UW-Whitewater on April 25.
UW-Oshkosh then hosts its last four regular season contests of the year with doubleheaders against UW-Stout (10-27) on April 28-29 before heading to Edgewood College (21-17) for a single game on May 2 and to UW-La Crosse (31-19) for season-ending doubleheaders on May 4-5.
Last year UW-Whitewater secured the WIAC title with a 17-3 record. The Warhawks were followed in the conference standings by UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh and UW-Stevens Point in second place with 11-9 marks, UW-Stout in fifth at 6-14 and UW-Platteville in sixth at 4-16.
UW-La Crosse and UW-Whitewater represented the conference in the Division III postseason after the Warhawks beat UW-La Crosse in the final game of the WIAC Tournament. The Titans, seeded fourth at the WIAC Championship, went 0-2 in the league tournament, suffering losses to top-seeded UW-Whitewater and third-seeded UW-Stevens Point.
UW-Oshkosh head coach Kevin Tomasiewicz, who owns an 84-77-1 record in four seasons, welcomes back 22 letter winners from last year's team that led the conference with 14 triples and ranked second in the league with a .286 batting average.
Headlining the returning Titans are All-WIAC first team selections Jack Paulson and Colan Treml.
Paulson, a senior shortstop, led UW-Oshkosh last season with a conference-best 33 walks, three triples and a .458 on-base percentage while hitting .311.
Treml, a junior pitcher, compiled a 5-3 record a year ago with a team-leading 72 innings pitched, 53 strikeouts, four complete games and three shutouts.
The Titans also return previous All-WIAC selections in senior first baseman Andy Brahier, junior outfielder Alex Koch, senior pitcher Nick McLees, sophomore utility player Dylan Ott and senior pitcher Jesse Sustachek.
Brahier was an All-WIAC first team pick in 2015 and an honorable mention choice in both 2016 and 2017 while Sustachek collected honorable mention honors in 2015 and 2017. Koch and McLees received honorable mention laurels in 2017, and Ott made the league's honorable mention team in 2016.
UW-Oshkosh owns a WIAC-record 29 regular season titles. The Titans earned a share of their most recent league championship in 2009.