Bulldogs Escape From Titans

A pair of Adrian College (Mich.) pitchers combined for 16 strikeouts as the UW-Oshkosh baseball team fell, 5-2, Saturday (March 7) in Mount Berry, Ga.

Adrian College starting pitcher Mo Hanley (1-0) struck out 10 across the first six innings en route to picking up his first win the season. Jordan Williams then earned the save for the Bulldogs after tossing three hitless innings with two walks and six strikeouts. Hanley allowed both UW-Oshkosh runs on three hits and two walks.

Adrian College (4-5) outhit UW-Oshkosh, 8-3. Gunner Rainey went 3-for-4 for the Bulldogs with four runs batted in while Thomas Miller added a pair of hits and scored three runs.

The Bulldogs, who have appeared in each of the past three NCAA Division III Championships, never trailed after scoring two runs in the top of the third inning. UW-Oshkosh (1-4) knotted the score at 2 during the home half of the third frame, but Adrian College answered with single runs in the fifth, eighth and ninth innings to improve to 2-1 all-time against the Titans.

Adrian College and UW-Oshkosh were meeting for the first time since a 15-2 Bulldogs win March 2, 2019, in Birmingham, Ala.

Connor Giusti, Matt McNabb and Hunter Staniske each collected hits for UW-Oshkosh, which recorded six stolen bases, including two apiece by Benjamin Jung and Eric Modaff. The Titans' six steals were their most since also swiping six bases against Lawrence University on March 18, 2018.

Adrian College claimed a 2-0 lead on Rainey's two-run single in the third inning. After UW-Oshkosh responded with a two-out, two run single from Giusti in the bottom of the third frame, Rainey, a 2020 D3baseball.com preseason All-America Honorable Mention selection, drove home Miller for what proved to be the decisive run on a single in the fifth inning.

The Bulldogs later capped the scoring on a Matthew Stewart sacrifice fly in the eighth inning and another RBI single from Rainey in the ninth frame.

UW-Oshkosh had the potential tying runs at third base in both the sixth inning against Hanley and again in the seventh frame against Williams. However, the Titans left a runner stranded at third base Hanley concluded his outing by notching his 10th strikeout to escape the sixth inning, and Williams retired the last two outs of the seventh frame via a strikeout and a groundout en route to retiring the final eight batters he faced.

Titans starting pitcher Matt Wiechmann (1-1) suffered the loss, yielding three runs (two earned) on six hits and one walk with five strikeouts in seven innings.

UW-Oshkosh wraps up its trip to Georgia on Sunday (March 8) against Denison University (Ohio), which entered the week ranked 19th the NCAA Division III by D3baseball.com.