Titans Sweep Blue Devils In Mauston
The UW-Oshkosh baseball team secured a pair of comeback victories over UW-Stout by scoring the final five runs in the opener and 12 unanswered runs during the nightcap Friday (April 19) in Mauston.
UW-Oshkosh (15-14, 8-8 WIAC) downed the Blue Devils by scores of 5-4 and 12-2 in seven innings. The Titans, won have won eight of their last nine meetings with UW-Stout, move into a tie for third in the WIAC standings.
UW-Stout (11-12, 6-10 WIAC) falls two spots to sixth in the conference with eight games remaining before the four-team league tournament begins. The Blue Devils lost both ends of the doubleheader despite jumping out to leads of 4-0 after three innings in the first game and 2-0 in the second frame during the second contest.
Eleven of the Titans' 24 hits on the day went for extra bases as Jensen Hinton homered in the opener, and Sean Cummins and Matt McNabb both hit a double and a triple during the nightcap.
In the first game, UW-Stout scored three times in the top of the first inning and added another run in the third frame before Hinton knotted the score at 4 with a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth frame. Dylan Ott then drove in the game-winning run during the home half of the seventh inning.
Titans starting pitcher Colan Treml and reliever Logan King combined to hold the Blue Devils scoreless over the final six innings.
Treml (5-4) picked up the win after allowing four runs (three earned) on 12 hits in 8.1 innings pitched. Treml walked one a struck out six before giving way to King, who recorded his first save by retiring the two batters he faced, including one via strikeout, in the ninth inning.
Treml is now tied for ninth in WIAC history with 234 career strikeouts during his four seasons. He moved past current UW-Oshkosh head coach Kevin Tomasiewicz, who had 232 strikeouts at UW-Whitewater from 2002-05.
UW-Oshkosh's Zack Radde went 3-for-4 with a triple, two runs scored and one run batted in. Jensen and Ott both added a pair of the Titans' 10 hits and drove in two runs apiece.
UW-Stout's three-run first inning featured run-scoring doubles from Kasey Bass and Joel Thimsen. The Blue Devils upped their lead to 4-0 on another RBI double by Bass in the third inning.
The UW-Oshkosh comeback began in the home half of the fourth inning, when Hinton plated Hunter Staniske with a groundout, and continued on run-scoring hits by Radde and Ott during the fifth frame that pulled the Titans within 4-3.
After UW-Oshkosh turned an inning-ending double play in the top of the sixth inning, Hinton led off the bottom of the frame with a game-tying home run to right field off of Blue Devils starting pitcher Brad Rindfleisch. The homer was Hinton's second of the year and fourth of his career.
Treml pitched around a leadoff single in the seventh inning before Radde tripled to lead off the Titan half of the frame. Ott then followed with a single that score Radde with the game-winning run.
UW-Stout connected for a pair of singles in the top of the eighth inning, but Kyle Hamilton was thrown out by Titans left fielder Alex Koch while attempting to stretch his leadoff hit into a double. Treml later stranded a two-out single by inducing a groundout to preserve the Titans' 5-4 lead.
The Blue Devils once again had the tying run aboard in the ninth inning as Treml hit the leadoff batter. A sacrifice bunt moved the tying run into scoring position, but King entered to strike out Bass for the second out before an infield popup concluded the game.
Bass went 3-for-5 to pace UW-Stout, which received two hits each from Hamilton, Reid Akerman, Jack Hemsath and Jared Jarvensivu.
Blue Devils relief pitcher Robert Pilz (0-1) was charged with the loss after surrendering one run on two hits with one strikeout in two innings.
In the second game, Titans starting pitcher Chris Atwood registered 10 strikeouts and allowed just five hits in a complete-game effort, holding the Blue Devils hitless over the final four innings and retiring 14 of the last 15 batters he faced.
Atwood (4-4), who issued one walk on the way to his third complete-game performance of the season, has 37 strikeouts over his past 37.2 innings pitched.
Six of the Titans' 14 hits went for extra bases as UW-Oshkosh produced a .733 slugging percentage during the nightcap. Staniske had three hits for UW-Oshkosh while Cummins, Hinton, Koch and McNabb each added two. Jonathan Selchow had three RBIs.
UW-Oshkosh erased its 2-0 deficit quickly, scoring twice in the second inning on a sacrifice fly from Selchow and a run-scoring triple by McNabb.
The Titans then took the lead for good with a seven-run third inning that included RBIs from Koch, Hinton, Selchow, McNabb, Radde and Kade Bohlman.
UW-Oshkosh capped its string of 12 unanswered runs with an RBI triple from Cummins and a squeeze bunt by Selchow in the fourth inning, and a walk-off run-scoring single from Staniske with two outs in the seventh frame.
Jordan Wilson accounted for two of UW-Stout's five hits.
Blue Devils relief pitcher Aaron Plotsky (2-3) suffered the loss, yielding seven runs on four hits and three walks in one-third of an inning.
UW-Oshkosh and UW-Stout conclude their four-game series with a doubleheader at Tiedemann Field in Oshkosh. Friday's games were held in Mauston due to unplayable conditions at Tiedemann Field.