A combination of twenty Warhawk hits and seven Oshkosh errors propelled UW-Whitewater to a 13-6 win over UW-Oshkosh in a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament game in La Crosse Saturday afternoon.  The win  put Whitewater, 29-14, into a matchup with top-seeded UW-La Crosse, 32-9, Saturday night.  Whitewater, 2-1 in the tourney, must defeat the Eagles, 2-0, Saturday night and again Sunday to win the WIAC tournament.  The loss knocked the fourth seeded Titans, 15-23, out of the double elimination tourney. 

The first inning foreshadowed the rest of the game against Oshkosh.  Whitewater's Matt Beyer (Janesville/Parker) led off the first and hit a ball to center that was dropped, then the thrown in was wild at Beyer wound up on third and scored on a Marty Herum (River Falls/River Falls) double.

Oshkosh came back with three runs in the bottom of the first, with the help of a Warhawk error and a hit batsmen, adding to four hits. 

Another Titan error and Herum RBI pulled Whitewater within 3-2 in the third.  The Warhawks added four more runs, with three more Oshkosh fielding miscues adding to Beyer's two run triple to take a 6-3 lead in the fourth.  Jared Fon (Germantown)'s double drove in two in Whitewater's four run, six hit, fifth to put the Warhawks up 10-3. 

The Titans put together four hits, and benefitted from Whitewater's only error of the game, to score three runs in the sixth to cut Whitewater's lead to 10-6.  RBI hits from Fon and Herum in the top of the seventh increased Whitewater's margin to 12-6, and the Warhawks closed the scoring with another RBI single from Herum in the ninth making another UW-O error hurt.

Colin Grove (Beloit/Beloit Memorial) came on in the first inning for UW-W and picked up the win with five innings of relief work, giving him his second win against no losses for the Warhawks.  Jack Larsen (Menomonee Falls/Menomonee Falls) went the final 3.1 innings without allowed a run or a walk on three hits.  UW-O used five pitchers in the game.

Centerfielder Dylan Friend (Burlington/Burlington) and Herum, the leading hitter in the WIAC, collected four hits apiece for Whitewater.  Friend scored three runs and Herum knocked in four.  Whitewater's twenty hits is the second highest total of the season, behind 22 collected in a win over UW-Superior May 4.