Titans Drop Extra Inning Contest to Benedictine
SAUGET, Ill.- The UW-Oshkosh baseball team dropped Sunday's game to Benedictine University (Ill.) for their first loss of the season. The Titans tied the game up in the bottom of the ninth, but six runs for the Eagles in the top of the 10th put Oshkosh away.
Zach Taylor started scoring in the bottom of the first, recording his seventh RBI of the road trip when Brenden Max scored on Taylor's center field single. After starting pitcher Cameron Mulvihill stranded a runner in the top of the second, Oshkosh scored again when Mason Kirchberg stole third and advanced home on an error.
In the top of the third, the Eagles scored their first run on a sacrifice fly to right. The Titans responded in the bottom of the third when Mason Kirchberg doubled to center to score Max Scherrman.
Mulvihill worked through scoreless fourth and fifth innings, stranding three with three strikeouts. He sat at six strikeouts through five innings.
After Max walked and Jake Surane got on base, Matt Scherrman singled to left, sending Max home, and advancing Surane to third. In the following at bat, Scherrman advanced to second on a wild pitch and advanced to third on an error. Surane crossed home to make the score 5-1.
After Mulvihill allowed his third walk, he was replaced by Lukas Broske. Mulvihill ended the day with 5.0 innings pitched, allowing one run, and striking out two. Broske allowed two hits to load the bases before being replaced by Matt Sorrells. He allowed three runs on consecutive at bats before forcing a flyout to end the inning. Nicholas Shiu was stranded on base in the bottom of the sixth after he got on base with two outs.
In the seventh inning, Benedictine tied the game at 5-5 in Aaron Huibregtse's first batter faced after he relieved Sorrells. Huibregtse then forced the third out to end the inning. Connor Giusti was the only Titan to reach base in the bottom half of the inning. Huibregtse struck out two and forced another out to go three up, three down in the top of the eighth, but the Titans did the same in their half for a scoreless inning.
Benedictine took a 6-5 lead in the top of the ninth, but Oshkosh's Giusti hit a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Trevor Morris to tie it back up at six. Jack McNamara flew out for the third out, sending the game to extras.
Huibregtse allowed three straight hits in open the 10th and was taken out after the third cleared the outfield fence to score three. Connor Walters came in as relief and got an out, but then hit two batters and allowed to hit to load the bases and was replaced by Alex Windey. A wild pitch and sacrifice fly scored two more Eagles, making the score 11-6. Another wild pitch put a runner from Benedictine in scoring position. The runner later scored on an error. Max reached first on an error to start the bottom half of the tenth but was thrown out on a fielder's choice that sent Surane to first. Scherrman flew out to right field for the second out. Surane advanced to second, then third on an error while Zach Taylor was up to bat. Taylor ended the game with a center field fly out and Oshkosh fell to a record of 3-1.
Looking Forward
The Titans return on Monday for their third game at GCS Credit Union Ballpark on Monday to face Webster at noon.