Brahier Records 200th Career Hit As Titans Sweep Eagles

Andy Brahier collected his 200th career hit as the nationally ranked UW-Oshkosh baseball team never trailed en route to sweeping a doubleheader at UW-La Crosse on Saturday (May 5).

UW-Oshkosh (26-7, 13-5), ranked 11th in the NCAA Division III by D3baseball.com, pulled away for a 9-4 win in the opener and cruised to a 15-4 victory during the nightcap. The Titans ascended to second in the WIAC standings – three games behind second-ranked UW-Whitewater (27-5, 17-3 WIAC) – with six contests remaining.

The Titans, who swept a doubleheader from UW-La Crosse for the first time since 2010, won three of their four meetings with Eagles over the weekend. The teams split a pair of one-run decisions Friday (May 4) in La Crosse.

UW-La Crosse (21-12, 11-7 WIAC) fell one spot to fourth in the conference standings.

Brahier reached 200 career hits with a run-scoring single in the seventh inning of Saturday's first game. He went on to add three more hits during the nightcap to increase his four-year total to 203 in 146 games played. Brahier, who leads UW-Oshkosh with a .453 batting average on the year, becomes the 11th Titan to collect 200 hits and the first since Nolan Fadness had 200 from 2008-11.

UW-Oshkosh pounded out 36 hits Saturday, including a season-high 23 during the nightcap. The Titans, who hit .409 on the day against six Eagles pitchers, amassed seven doubles and three home runs in the two contests.

Each of the nine spots in the UW-Oshkosh batting order contributed hits in both games.

UW-Oshkosh's Alex Koch, Dylan Ott and Zack Radde each had five on the day while Hunter Staniske and Jack Paulson added four apiece. Koch hit a pair of home runs, Staniske had three doubles and Ott recorded a pair of two-base hits.

Titan starting pitchers Nick McLees and Jon Maday picked up wins. McLees (7-2) pitched into the ninth inning during the opener. Maday (3-1) then established new career highs with seven strikeouts across seven innings pitched.

McLees gave up four runs and scattered nine hits in 8.2 innings pitched. He walked two and struck out four. Maday allowed three runs on six hits and three walks.

In Saturday's opener, Taylor Grimm lifted a sacrifice fly that gave the Titans the lead for good at 3-2 in the top of the fifth inning. Koch hit a pair of home runs – a two-run shot in the sixth inning and a three-run blast in the seventh – to extended the UW-Oshkosh advantage to 9-2. Koch first career two-homer game gives him a team-leading seven on the year.

UW-La Crosse tied the score at 2 on a two-run homer from Mitch Sutton in the fourth inning and capped the scoring on Luke Schmitt's solo home run in the bottom of the ninth frame.

Koch went 3-for-5 with five runs batted in to pace the Titans, who also received two of their 13 hits from both Paulson and Logan Reckert.

Brady Stolzman had two of the Eagles' nine hits.

UW-La Crosse starting pitcher Remington Schneider (3-5) was charged with the loss after giving up five runs on eight hits in six innings.

In the nightcap, UW-Oshkosh owned a 6-0 lead after three innings on the way to securing its most lopsided victory against UW-La Crosse since a 15-2, seven-inning drubbing on April 13, 2008. The Titans' 23-hit performance included four from both Ott and Radde, three by Brahier and Staniske, and two each from Grimm, Koch, Paulson and Jensen Hinton.

Grimm hit his sixth home run of the year, Ott and Staniske doubled twice, and Brahier added a double. UW-Oshkosh has now produced 32 extra-base hits over its last six games.

UW-Oshkosh built its 6-0 lead on the strength of run-scoring hits from Brahier, Hinton, Radde and Staniske. Grimm's home run – a two-run shot – extended the Titans advantage to 9-2 in the sixth inning.

Sutton led UW-La Crosse with two of the team's seven hits.

Eagles starting pitcher Jack Mizgalski (2-2) suffered the loss, surrendering six runs on nine hits in three innings. Each of the three UW-La Crosse pitchers in the second contest ceded at least four runs.

UW-Oshkosh heads to UW-Stevens Point for a doubleheader Monday (May 7).