Titans Drop Games to Eagles, Warhawks; Eliminated From WIAC Tournament
STEVENS POINT, Wis.- The fourth-seeded UW-Oshkosh baseball team (25-15) was eliminated from the WIAC Tournament on Friday with losses to second-seeded UW-La Crosse and third-seeded UW-Whitewater. Host team and first-seeded UW-Stevens Point was eliminated from the tournament in the first game of the day, losing to Whitewater by a score of 9-1.
Game One Recap
Connor Walters made his fourth start of the season for UW-Oshkosh and Owen Deprez started on the mound for UW-La Crosse.
UWO fell behind early off solo home runs in the bottom of the first by Chris VandenHeuvel and Jack Olver.
The Titans responded in the top of the third, scoring three runs on two home runs (Matt Scherrman and Zach Taylor) and an RBI bunt by Ethan Schreier.
Three more runs scored in the top of the fourth, giving Oshkosh a 6-2 lead when Connor Giusti hit a two-run home run to left field and Scherrman hit a sacrifice fly to center field.
Chase Marsh recorded the final RBIs of the game for Oshkosh in the top of the fifth to make the score 8-2. He singled through the left side to score both Mason Kirchberg and Nicholas Shiu.
The Eagles scored seven unanswered runs between the sixth and 10th innings, including Olver's second home run of the game in the seventh and four runs in the ninth to send the game to extra innings. VandenHeuvel sent the winning run home in the bottom of the 10th on a single through the right side. The final score was 9-8.
Giusti went three-four five with a home run, two RBI and a run scored Jake Surane finished the game going three-for-six with a double, a stolen base and a run scored.
Logan King (2-3) was assigned the loss in 1.1 innings of work, allowing four runs on six hits while striking out one. Caleb Matl (3-0) earned the win. He pitched 1.0 inning and recorded a strikeout.
The Eagles advanced to the 11 a.m. game on Saturday while the Titans played third-seeded UW-Whitewater at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.
Game Two Recap
Cameron Mulvihill took the mound to start against Logan Eisenbarth in UWO's second game of the day.
The Warhawks made it to the game with a 14-4 loss to UWL in seven innings on Thursday and a 9-1 win over UW-Stevens Point on Friday morning to eliminate the top-seeded Pointers (UWO beat UWSP 5-3 on Thursday).
UWW scored in the bottom of the first inning with solo home runs by Matt Scolan and Donovan Brandl.
Scherrman tied the game back up in the top of the third with a two-run home run to left field that also scored Schreier.
A five-run third inning for Whitewater was started by an RBI single up the middle by Brandl and capped off with a double steal of second and home.
Scolan hit his second home run of the game in the bottom of the fourth to give UWW an 8-2 lead.
Whitewater scored twice more in the fifth and sixth before UWO's Surane hit his third home run of the season to record three RBI, cutting UWW's lead in half and bringing the score to 5-10.
The bottom of the seventh saw Whitewater score on a Ryan Norton single to center field and the top of the eighth saw Kirchberg hit a two-run home run (10th home run of the year). Kirchberg's home run was the last time either team scored. UWO fell to UWW by a score of 7-12.
The Warhawks will face the Eagles in the championship game Saturday (May 12) at noon at Zimmermann Field in Stevens Point.
Looking Forward
The Titans will look forward to a potential at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament. The NCAA baseball selection show will take place on NCAA.com on Monday (May 15), starting at 11 a.m. CDT.