Titans Headed to Third Consecutive WIAC Tournament
OSHKOSH, Wis.- For the third straight year, the UW-Oshkosh baseball team is headed to the WIAC Tournament (Presented by Culver's). They will open the tournament against host and nationally ranked UW-Stevens Point on Thursday (May 11) at noon.
UW-Oshkosh (24-13) is seeded fourth in this year's tournament and will seek its second WIAC Tournament title; their first since winning the inaugural event in 1998. The winner of the tournament will receive the conference automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Titans last made an appearance in the NCAA tournament in 2018, going 3-2 in the Duluth (Minn.) Regional.
UW-Stevens Point (29-9), ranked No. 13 in the nation this week, earned the top seed and hosting rights by winning the WIAC regular season title. They finished the season with a four-game sweep of the Titans at home. The Pointers lead the league with 12 Tournament titles, last winning last season.
Second-seeded UW-La Crosse (28-9) will face third-seeded UW-Whitewater (28-11) at 3 p.m. on Thursday. La Crosse is ranked 15th in the nation this week. Whitewater, who is receiving votes, earned the third seed over the Titans with the tiebreaker.
The four-team WIAC tournament will continue on Friday (May 12) with three games and will conclude with the championship game on Saturday (May 13). One game will be played on Saturday under any circumstances, but a second will need to be play if the winner of Game 4 loses the championship game.
The four programs vying for the 2023 title are the only teams to ever secure WIAC Tournament championships as UW-Stevens Point owns a conference-leading 12 postseason crowns, while UW-Whitewater has won it seven times, UW-La Crosse on three occasions and UW-Oshkosh once. UW-Whitewater and UW-La Crosse won their most recent conference tournament titles in 2021 and 2016, respectively.
UW-Oshkosh enters the WIAC postseason with a .314 batting average, a 4.54 earned run average and a .975 fielding percentage. The Titans, who sport a 19-33 record in the WIAC Tournament, made it to the title game in 2022 where they fell to the Pointers by a score of 10-0 in eight innings.
UWO is pacing the league with 217 strikeouts at the plate, while ranking second with 83 doubles.
Five Titans are hitting at least .300, led by Matt Scherrman with a .419 batting average and an on-base plus slugging percentage of 1.174. Scherrman currently ranks second in the WIAC with 62 hits, 16 doubles and 50 RBI.
Connor Giusti is hitting .343, followed by Jake Surane at .331, Chase Marsh at .330, Nicholas Shiu at .328 and Zach Taylor at .318.
Surane leads the conference with 19 doubles and 19 stolen bases, while his team-leading 46 runs scored and 3 triples land him at fourth and a tied for third, respectively.
Mason Kirchberg leads the Titans with 10 home runs and Shiu paces the team with 25 walks.
Connor Brinkman and LJ Waco spearhead UWO's pitching staff this season. Brinkman leads the league with 66.2 innings pitched and seven wins while sitting second with 18 strikeouts looking.
Waco leads the league with 76 strikeouts and 29 strikeouts looking while sitting second with six wins and third with 61.0 innings pitched.