Titans Extend Winning Streak With Sweep Of Pioneers
The UW-Oshkosh baseball team extended its Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference winning streak to eight games with a pair of victories over UW-Platteville on Sunday (April 24) at Tiedemann Field.
UW-Oshkosh (18-10, 13-5 WIAC) won the opener, 6-4, after reclaiming the lead for the third and final time with a two-run sixth inning. The Titans then secured the nightcap by a 12-2 score in seven innings on the strength of 11 two-out, unearned runs during the seventh frame.
The Titans, who have now won 16 consecutive meetings with UW-Platteville in Oshkosh, have not suffered a home setback to the Pioneers since April 19, 2009. UW-Oshkosh swept last year's four-game series against UW-Platteville at Tiedemann Field.
UW-Oshkosh remains alone in third place in the WIAC standings with 10 league games left. UW-Platteville (10-13, 8-8 WIAC) is still fifth in the conference as it seeks to claim a spot in the four-team league tournament that begins May 12.
Sunday's conference doubleheader – originally scheduled to be played Saturday (April 23) as the opener of a four-game weekend series in Platteville – was moved to Oshkosh due to wet field conditions at UW-Platteville's Kendall Murray Field. UW-Platteville was the home team during both ends of Sunday's doubleheader at Tiedemann Field. The teams will play the final two contests of their series on May 3 in Platteville.
Six different Titans produced at least three hits versus UW-Platteville, including Nicholas Shiu who had five and Chase Marsh and Matt Scherrman who each had four. Shiu and Scherrman went 5-for-5 and 4-for-5, respectively, during the first game of the day. Shiu's five-hit performance was one shy of tying the school and WIAC record.
A trio of UW-Oshkosh pitchers combined to limit UW-Platteville – the top hitting team in the WIAC entering Sunday with a .315 batting average – to a relatively modest .292 average during the doubleheader while recording 18 strikeouts across 16 total innings. UW-Oshkosh, which pounded out eight extra-base hits en route to batting .359 on the day, went into Sunday pacing the WIAC in doubles, triples, stolen bases and fielding percentage.
UW-Platteville surrendered 12 unearned runs and committed seven errors during the doubleheader. UW-Oshkosh had just one error all day and did not allow an unearned run.
In the first contest, UW-Oshkosh claimed leads in both the fourth and fifth innings before going ahead for good at 5-4 on Jake Andersen's single with the bases loaded and no outs during the sixth frame.
UW-Platteville scored a run in the bottom of the first inning, but the Titans answered with two runs of their own during the fourth frame on a Shiu double that scored Scherrman and an Ethan Schreier groundout that brought home Zach Taylor.
The Pioneers later knotted the score twice more with a single run in the fourth inning that evened it at 2 and again at 4 following a two-run fifth frame. Scherrman provided UW-Oshkosh a short-lived 4-2 advantage with a double that scored both Andersen and Eric Modaff in the fifth inning.
UW-Oshkosh began the fateful top of the sixth inning with singles by both Shiu and Marsh sandwiched around a Schreier walk to load the bases for Andersen, who singled to left field to bring home Shiu with what proved to be the winning run. An outfielder fielding error on Andersen's single also allowed Schreier to cross the plate for a 6-4 advantage.
The Pioneers went on to leave the bases loaded in the sixth inning, waste a leadoff single during the seventh frame and strand a runner at third base in the eighth before going down in order in the ninth.
Shiu and Scherrman accounted for nine of UW-Oshkosh's 15 hits. Marsh and Schreier had two hits apiece and both walked once.
UW-Oshkosh starting pitcher Will Michalski improved his season record to 4-0, allowing four runs and scattering nine hits in five innings. Michalski did not issue a walk and struck out six batters.
Connor Brinkman picked up his second save of the year after holding the Pioneers scoreless on three hits and one walk with a pair of strikeouts across the final four innings.
Ross Krist had two hits, including a home run, and two runs batted in to pace the Pioneers. Krist's two-run homer tied the score at 4 in the bottom of the fifth inning.
UW-Platteville relief pitcher Nate Jennings (1-2) suffered the loss, giving up two runs (one earned) on nine hits and two walks with four strikeouts in four innings.
During the nightcap, UW-Oshkosh starting pitcher Harry Orth and counterpart Michael Greco from UW-Platteville were locked in a scoreless duel until Jake Surane blasted a line drive over the left-field wall to lead off the top of the sixth inning. The home run was Surane's third of the season.
Orth then retired the Pioneers in order during the bottom of the sixth inning to set up UW-Oshkosh's remarkable string of two-out runs in the seventh frame.
UW-Oshkosh had just five hits in their 11-run, seventh-inning outburst that featured four UW-Platteville errors, four walks, a pair of wild pitches and one hit batter. The Titans, who eventually sent 15 batters to the plate during the inning, had runners on second and third bases with two outs while clinging to a 1-0 lead. However, the next 11 Titans reached base safely as Modaff sparked the onslaught with a two-run single for a 3-0 advantage.
Surane followed with an RBI double, Scherrman was hit by a pitch and Taylor walked to load the bases. Shiu then walked, Schreier and Marsh singled, Andersen reached via a fielding error, Mason Kirchberg walked and Surane also reached on an error before the Pioneers finally escaped out of the inning.
Orth, who lost a bid for his first career shutout on a leadoff home run in the bottom of the seventh inning, went the distance for UW-Oshkosh to up his record to 6-2 this year. Orth, the WIAC strikeout leader heading into Sunday, gave up seven hits and struck out 10 batters without issuing a walk during his second complete game performance of this season. Orth, who notched double-digit punchouts for the third time, now has 77 strikeouts in 56.2 innings pitched on the year.
Surane added a pair of doubles and finished the nightcap 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBIs. Marsh and Modaff chipped in two hits apiece for the Titans.
Mitchell McLaughlin and Jake Wegner both accounted for two of the Pioneers' seven hits. Jordan Collins' home run broke up Orth's shutout bid in the seventh inning.
Greco (2-3) was charged with the loss for UW-Platteville despite yielding just one run on three hits and three walks with two strikeouts in six innings.
UW-Oshkosh hosts Ripon College for a nonconference game Tuesday (April 26) at Tiedemann Field.