In a rare occurrence, the UW-Whitewater baseball team played three games against UW-Oshkosh Wednesday at Tiedemann Field in Oshkosh. The Titans and Warhawks picked up where they left off in game one after it was suspended last Wednesday, April 17, with the Titans emerging with the victory 11-1 in seven innings. The Warhawks tipped the scales in their direction in the next two games, belting forty hits and scoring 38 runs to win 18-6, and 20-3, in seven innings. UW-W, ranked seventh in the most recent D3baseball.com poll, improves to 24-5 overall and 15-2, first place, in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The Titans drop to 18-9 overall and 7-8 in the WIAC.
Last Wednesday UW-Oshkosh jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three innings before the game was suspended. A week later they picked up right where they left off and scored seven more runs in the next three innings to take an 11-1 lead to end game one early by virtue of the ten-run rule.
The Warhawks lone run came in the top of the fourth when Mikole Pierce (DePere/DePere) singled with runners on the corners.
The Titans ripped fifteen hits in the game, nine for extra bases. UW-W totaled just six hits in the game, none for extra bases. David Cladis (Joliet, IL/Joliet Catholic) was the only Warhawk to notch multiple hits in the game with two.
In game two the two teams played even for the first third of the game each scoring two in the first and one in the third to make it 3-3.
After a Titan pitching change in the fourth, the Warhawks singled, walked, and singled to score one. The Titans again changed pitchers but the Warhawks followed with two sacrifice flies to score two more and take a 6-3 lead.
Oshkosh retaliated with two in the bottom of the inning to make it 6-5, but then Warhawk starter Matt Roberts (Manitowoc/Roncalli) found his groove allowing just two hits over the course of the next three and a third innings. Meanwhile, the Warhawks continued to give run support, scoring a run in each of the remaining innings.
In the fifth Steve Bartlein (South Milwaukee/South Milwaukee) hit a leadoff homer to left field to give UW-W a 7-5 lead. In the sixth Pierce knocked in one more, Cladis knocked in another, and Bartlein hit his second homer of the game to score two more and make it 11-5.
Marty Herum (River Falls/River Falls) got in on the action in the seventh and made it 12-5 when he singled to right field to bring home Jared Fon (Germantown/Germantown) who doubled in the previous at bat.
Three more runs in the eighth and the ninth were bookends to one run by the Titans in the eighth to bring the final score to 18-6. Six different Warhawks recorded two or more RBIs and all starters recorded at least one hit. The Warhawks recorded six extra-base hits in the game.
Roberts, who struck out eight, pitched seven and a third and earned the win to improve to 5-0. Colin Grove (Beloit/Beloit Memorial) pitched the final five outs and gave up two hits while striking out three.
Game three got out of the Titans' hands quickly. The Warhawks scored multiple runs in each of the first four innings, including an eight run fourth, and scored in every inning en route to the 20-3 shellacking.
The two-run homerun was the common thread in the first three innings for the Warhawks. Pierce hit one in the first, Dylan Friend (Burlington/Burlington) in the second, and Bartlein in the third to highlight the Warhawks' 8-0 start.
Not to be outdone, UW-Oshkosh first baseman Bobby Kachel hit a three-run blast in the third to put a dent in the Warhawk lead and make it 8-3.
Then the eight-run fourth inning happened. The Warhawks scored the first two runs on a Fon single to center. The next two came on a Pierce single to center. The next two came on a failed pickoff attempt by the pitcher to first base. The next one came on a Casey Power (Ontario, Canada/Belle River) double, and the last one was scored on a ground out, and just like that it was 16-3.
A solo homerun by Herum in the fifth, a two-run double by Michael Gonzalez (Delavan/Delavan-Darien) in the sixth, and a one run single by Pierce in the seventh made it 20-3, and just like the first game of the day, this game was over in seven innings.
Besides the one hiccup in the third, Tom Kerndt (Lansing, IA/Lansing) was rock solid for UW-W. In fact, in his remaining three innings, Kerndt gave up no hits and struck out ten to earn the win. Kerndt is now 5-1 this season. Brock Liston (Darien, IL/Joliet Catholic) pitched the final inning for the Warhawks and sat the Titans down 1-2-3.
Just like the second game, every Warhawk starter recorded a hit. Herum led the Warhawks in hits with seven for the day and Pierce recorded eight RBIs to lead the team. Bartlein, who hit three homers, went 5-for-12 with five runs and five RBIs.
Oddly enough, the last time the Warhawks scored twenty or more runs was against UW-Oshkosh on May 13, 2011 in a 21-2 win in the first game of the WIAC tournament.
The Warhawks will host UW-La Crosse on Saturday and Sunday, April 27 and 28, in doubleheaders beginning at noon on both days. The games will be played at Prucha Field in James B. Miller Stadium in the northwest corner of the UW-Whitewater campus.