Titans Defeat Nationally Ranked Saints

Alex Koch drove in the go-ahead run and Taylor Grimm produced a pair of insurance scores as the UW-Oshkosh baseball team defeated nationally ranked The College of St. Scholastica (Minn.), 4-2, on Saturday (March 17) in Auburndale, Fla.

UW-Oshkosh (5-2), which lost its previous five games to the Saints (5-3), took the lead for good at 2-1 on Koch's one-out single in the sixth inning. Koch scored Sam Schwenn who hit a one-out double two at-bats earlier. The Titans ended the inning with the bases loaded as Grimm and Dylan Ott became base runners after being hit by a pitch.

Grimm then gave UW-Oshkosh a 4-1 lead with his two-out single in the seventh inning. Schwenn and Jack Paulson scored on Grimm's single after being hit with a pitch after two were out.

The game was scoreless until Logan Reckert drove in Ott with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth inning. Ott opened the inning with a walk before stealing second base and advancing to third on a throwing error by Saints shortstop Joey Zwak.

The College of St. Scholastica, ranked 22nd in the NCAA Division III by D3baseball.com, evened the score at 1 in the top of the sixth inning. Aaron Weber led off the frame being hit by a pitch. Two batters later, Eric Pearson hit a run-scoring, out-out double to bring in Weber.

The Saints cut their deficit to 4-2 on Riley Bernsdorf's two-out single in the eighth inning. Bernsdorf scored Steven Neutzling who singled to lead off the frame and eventually advanced to second base on a wild pitch.

Schwenn scored twice and owned two of UW-Oshkosh's six hits. Schwenn and Jensen Hinton both doubled for the Titans' only extra-base hits.

The College of St. Scholastica, which has made 14 consecutive NCAA postseason appearances, tallied seven hits. Eric Pearson and Conor Wollenzien both doubled as no Saint had more than one hit.

UW-Oshkosh's Colan Treml (3-0) struck out seven batters and allowed six hits in 7.2 innings to pick up the win. Treml allowed two earned runs and walked three batters.

Titan Chris Atwood replaced Treml in the eighth inning and struck out the only batter he faced. Scott Gorsuch pitched the ninth inning to earn his second save of the season. Gorsuch pitched to only four batters and recorded one strikeout with one hit allowed.

Dan Hansen took the pitching loss for the Saints after striking out four batters and allowing four hits and two runs (one earned) in six innings.

Hansen was relieved by Matt Tautges who allowed two runs while hitting a pair of batters in two-thirds of an inning of work. Jake Turner then took to the mound and pitched the final 1.1 innings. Turner allowed two hits during his scoreless performance.

UW-Oshkosh plays Fox Valley rival Lawrence University on Sunday (March 18) in Auburndale.

Photo by Jennifer Zuberbier