Titans Open 2022 Season In Alabama
The UW-Oshkosh baseball team opens the 2022 season with three games in Alabama this weekend, beginning with a pair of contests against highly ranked opponents.
UW-Oshkosh (20-19 record in 2021) gets the season underway at Birmingham-Southern College (Ala.) on Friday (Feb. 25) before remaining in Birmingham to face Adrian College (Mich.) on Saturday (Feb. 26). The Titans then wrap up their trip to the Yellowhammer State on Sunday (Feb. 27) against Dominican University (Ill.) (10-27) in Hoover.
Reigning Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association champion Adrian College (37-10) is ranked fifth in the D3baseball.com preseason poll after advancing to the Division III World Series a year ago. Birmingham-Southern College (25-14), ranked seventh in the country, is the defending tournament champion in the Southern Athletic Association.
The opening weekend commences UW-Oshkosh's 40-game schedule that features six contests against teams ranked among the top seven in the D3baseball.com preseason poll and 10 games against programs that reached the NCAA postseason last year.
The Titans play single games in Decatur, Ill., against host Millikin University and Coe College (Iowa) from March 4-6, then head to Richmond, Ky., for a three-game series against Transylvania University on March 12-13 and travel to Milwaukee School of Engineering for a doubleheader March 19 before conducting their home and Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener during a four-game series versus UW-Eau Claire on March 26-27 at Tiedemann Field.
Transylvania (32-12) and Millikin (31-16) universities both played in the 2021 Division III Championship, while Coe College (36-7) is the defending regular season champion in the American Rivers Conference. Milwaukee School of Engineering (18-16) finished second a year ago in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference North Division as 10 of the Titans' first 11 games will be against teams that combined for a 179-75 record last season.
Rounding out UW-Oshkosh's nonconference schedule is a home game versus Ripon College (8-29) on April 12.
The Titans are slated to play 17 games at home this season. UW-Oshkosh welcomes conference rivals UW-Stout (23-19) on April 9-10, Finlandia University (Mich.) (0-37) on April 15-16 and UW-Stevens Point (32-11) for the regular season finale May 6-7. Each WIAC series will be doubleheaders on consecutive days.
Completing the Titans' WIAC schedule are four-game road series at sixth-ranked UW-Whitewater (40-7) on April 2-3, UW-Platteville (15-26) on April 23-24 and UW-La Crosse (30-13) on April 30-May 1.
Last year UW-Whitewater and UW-Stevens Point shared the WIAC regular season title with 24-4 records before UW-Whitewater clinched the league's postseason championship to earn an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.
The Warhawks and Pointers were followed in the 2021 WIAC standings by UW-La Crosse in third place with a 19-9 record, UW-Oshkosh and UW-Stout in fourth at 16-12, UW-Platteville sixth at 8-20, UW-Eau Claire seventh at 5-23 and Finlandia University eighth at 0-28.
UW-Oshkosh ninth-year head coach Kevin Tomasiewicz brings back 21 letterwinners from last year's squad, including eight lineup regulars who started at least 12 games in 2021 and six of the nine pitchers who tossed more than 17 innings a year ago.
Last season the Titans hit 47 home runs – their most since 2004 – and batted .291 with 80 stolen bases.
Leading the returning Titans are five players who hit .285 or better in 2021 as Jake Surane batted .412, Eric Modaff .335, Matt Scherrman .326, Ethan Schreier .316 and Connor Giusti .285. Modaff paced UW-Oshkosh with 44 runs scored and 22 stolen bases last season while Scherrman had a team-best 15 doubles and was second on the squad with 46 runs batted in.
Jake Andersen, Sean Cummins and Zach Taylor are also back after starting at least 12 games for the Titans last year.
UW-Oshkosh pitchers Scherrman, Logan King, Will Michalski, Cameron Mulvihill, Harry Orth and Grant Yakimisky each logged more than 17 innings on the mound in 2021. Michalski, who was second on the team in wins in 2021, went 4-2 a year ago with 38 strikeouts in 45.1 innings pitched, and Orth sported a 3.67 earned run average and three saves to pace the returning Titan pitchers.
The Titans, seeking their 26th NCAA postseason appearance and first since reaching the regional title game in 2018, have won a league-record 29 WIAC regular season championships. UW-Oshkosh earned Division III titles in 1985 and 1994, and finished as the national runner-up in 1987, 1988 and 1993.