Titans Salvage Split With Pointers
UW-Oshkosh relief pitchers Cameron Mulvihill and Trevor Niedzwiecki combined to hold UW-Stevens Point scoreless over the final six innings of the nightcap as the Titans came back to win and salvage a doubleheader split with the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference co-leading Pointers on Tuesday (May 4) at Tiedemann Field.
UW-Stevens Point (23-8, 18-4 WIAC) overcame an early deficit and claimed the opener, 7-3, before UW-Oshkosh (18-11, 15-7) erased a deficit of its own to win the second contest, 8-5, and improve its home record to 13-4 on the year.
The Titans remain alone in third in the league standings while the Pointers fell into second, one game behind UW-Whitewater (25-4, 17-3 WIAC) with eight league contests remaining.
In Tuesday's second game, UW-Oshkosh jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the home half of the first inning on a two-run double from Hunter Staniske and a passed ball that allowed Jarrett Scheelk to score.
UW-Stevens Point answered with three runs of its own during the top of the second inning as Kyle Finger lifted a three-run homer. The Pointers then claimed a 5-3 advantage on Finger's two-run double in the top of the third frame. However, that was the end of the Pointers' scoring as Mulvihill and Niedzwiecki limited UW-Stevens Point to a pair of singles and two walks the rest of the way.
Mulvihill came on in relief of Scheelk, the Titans starting pitcher, with a runner at first and no outs in the top of the fourth inning. Mulvihill retired the first 10 Pointers he faced until allowing a one-out infield single in the seventh inning.
UW-Oshkosh began its comeback in the home half of the fourth inning on a Griffith Lukes double that scored Sean Cummins to trim its deficit to 5-4. The Titans tied the score at 5 in the fifth frame on a Matt Scherrman groundout that plated Ethan Schreier before a 6-5 advantage later in the inning on a double-steal of second base and home plate by Scherrman and Staniske, who crossed the plate for what turned out to be the winning run with one out.
The Titans went on to tack on single insurance runs in both the sixth and seventh innings. Schreier plated Cummins for the seventh UW-Oshkosh run before Scherrman blasted a solo home run to left field – his fifth of the season – to provide the game's final score.
Niedzwiecki took over on the UW-Oshkosh mound after Mulvihill issued a leadoff walk in the top of the eighth inning. Niedzwiecki proceeded to induce three harmless outs in the air to escape the eighth frame unscathed before working around a leadoff walk and a two-out single during the ninth to preserve the win.
Mulvihill (2-1) earned the win after allowing just one hit and one walk with two strikeouts in four innings. Niedzwiecki notched his team-leading fourth save of the year, limiting the Pointers to one hit and one walk with a strikeout across the final two frames.
The Titans outhit the Pointers, 14-9, as Scheelk and Schreier had three hits apiece for UW-Oshkosh, which also received two hits from both Cummins and Scherrman.
Finger was 2-for-4 with five runs batted in to lead UW-Stevens Point.
Pointers starting pitcher Nick Carpenter (3-1) suffered his first loss this season, yielding six runs (five earned) on 10 hits and a pair of walks in five innings.
During the first game of the day, UW-Stevens Point tied the score at 2 with a two-run top of the fourth inning and took the lead for good with two more runs during the fifth frame on the way to snapping UW-Oshkosh's 10-game winning streak.
Staniske staked the Titans to a 2-0 lead with a two-run homer in the home half of the first inning, but the Pointers responded with five unanswered runs until Staniske's RBI single pulled UW-Oshkosh within 5-3 during the eighth frame.
UW-Stevens Point then added a pair of insurance runs in the top of the ninth inning.
Staniske, batting .487 on the year, was 4-for-4 for the Titans with his eighth home run and 10th stolen base of the season.
The Pointers collected 12 hits in the opener, including three from Tommy Duddleston and two apiece from Bradley Comer and Payton Nelson. Finger drove in a pair of runs and concluded the day with seven RBIs.
Pointers starting pitcher Casey Pickering improved his season record to 4-2, allowing three runs on eight hits with nine strikeouts across the first seven innings.
Sidney Ferry tossed two scoreless innings to picked up his WIAC-leading fifth save for the Pointers.
UW-Oshkosh starting pitcher Grant Yakimisky (1-2) was charged with the loss after ceding five runs (four earned) in five innings.
The Titans and Pointers play another WIAC doubleheader Friday (May 7) in Stevens Point.
Photo by Steve Frommell, UW-Oshkosh Athletics