Nationally Ranked Pointers Defeat Titans Twice
The UW-Oshkosh baseball team dropped both ends of a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against nationally ranked UW-Stevens Point on Friday (May 6) at Tiedemann Field.
UW-Stevens Point (30-6, 21-5 WIAC), ranked 16th in the NCAA Division III by D3baseball.com, defeated the Titans by scores of 4-2 in the opener and 7-5 during the nightcap. The Pointers stay two games behind seventh-ranked UW-Whitewater (31-6, 23-3 WIAC) in the race for the conference championship.
UW-Oshkosh (20-15, 14-10), which had won 12 of its previous 13 home games this season, remains alone in third place in the league standings with four regular season games left.
In Friday's series opener, UW-Stevens Point scored twice in the top of the third inning and maintained a lead the rest of the way.
Payton Nelson drove in the Pointers' first run with a groundout before Aaron Simmons came in to score via a balk for a 2-0 UW-Stevens Point advantage in the third frame.
Jake Andersen and Ethan Schreier produced UW-Oshkosh runs on sacrifice flies during the seventh and ninth innings, respectively.
UW-Stevens Point outhit the Titans, 8-5, as Simmons led the way with three hits and two runs scored for the Pointers. Zach Taylor accounted for two of the Titans' hits while Nicholas Shiu doubled and scored both UW-Oshkosh runs.
UW-Stevens Point starting pitcher JD Schultz (2-3) picked up the win, allowing just one unearned run on four hits and one walk with six strikeouts in 6.1 innings.
Sidney Ferry recorded his fifth save of the season for the Pointers after surrendering one run on one hit and one walk with one strikeout across the final two frames.
UW-Oshkosh starting pitcher Harry Orth (6-3) was charged with the loss, surrendering four runs in 8.1 innings.
During the nightcap UW-Oshkosh rallied to tie the score at 5 on Taylor's sacrifice fly in the home half of the seventh inning, but the Pointers claimed their second and final lead on Anthony Tomczak's two-run homer in the top of the ninth.
UW-Oshkosh jumped out to a 3-0 lead after three innings and owned a 4-2 advantage until Simmons hit solo home runs during the fifth and seventh frames for the Pointers to tie the game at 4. UW-Stevens Point then claimed its first lead on a run-scoring double by Bradley Comer in the top of the seventh inning.
Comer and Simmons both accounted for four of UW-Stevens Point's 15 hits. Jake Surane went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two runs batted in for the Titans, who also received two of their 11 hits from Shiu, Eric Modaff and Matt Scherrman.
Surane's RBI single opened the scoring in the home half of the first inning. Surane later produced another run-scoring single to extend UW-Oshkosh's lead to 4-2 during the fourth frame.
UW-Stevens Point relief pitcher Austin Syvertson (2-1) earned the win after tossing 1.1 scoreless innings ahead of Ferry, who notched his second save of the day and sixth of the season by working a scoreless ninth frame.
Matt Sorrells (1-2) suffered the loss in relief for UW-Oshkosh, yielding two runs over the final 2.2 innings. UW-Oshkosh starting pitcher Will Michalski gave up five runs before exiting with one out in the seventh inning.
UW-Oshkosh and UW-Stevens Point conclude their regular season series with another doubleheader Saturday (May 7). The doubleheader marks the final home games this season for the Titans.
Photo by Patrick Flood, UW-Oshkosh University Marketing & Communications