Solid pitching combined with timely hitting aided the Warhawks to a doubleheader sweep of Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference foe UW-Oshkosh at Prucha Field at James B. Miller Stadium in Whitewater Wednesday.  The Warhawks won game one 12-6 and game two 15-2 in seven innings.  Game two was shortened by the WIAC rule stating that a game is to be stopped if one team is 10 or more runs ahead of its opponent after seven or more innings of play.  The sweep pushes the Warhawks to 15-3 overall and 3-1 in WIAC action.  The Titans fall to 10-8 and 3-5.

Scott Plaza (Arlington Heights, IL/Prospect) pitched a complete game in the first game to earn the win and improve to 3-1 this season.  This is the first complete game since Tom Kerndt (Lansing, IA/Lansing) did it on May 17, 2013 in a 3-2 loss to St. Scholastica.  Plaza scattered 11 hits and six runs while striking out five.  Plaza leads the pitching staff in strikeouts this season with 29.

UW-W provided run support in each of the first four innings.  The Warhawks tallied one in the first, four in the second, three in the third and one more in the fourth.  The Titans snuck in two runs in the top of the third but after four the Warhawks found themselves with a comfortable 9-2 lead.  Some of the scoring highlights included two doubles in the second that each knocked one and a triple in the same inning that scored two.

The Titans plated two in each of the sixth and seventh innings to make the game 9-6, but UW-W added three insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth.  Mikole Pierce (DePere/DePere) led off the inning with a ground-rule double over the right field wall.  Michael Gonzalez (Delavan/Delavan-Darien) followed with a single to score Pierce.  Three batters later Mike Mierow (Brookfield/Central) doubled to push the final two runs of the game across the plate.  Plaza came back out in the ninth and sat the Titans down 1-2-3 to end the game.

Game one featured 13 combined doubles, 7 by the Warhawks.  UW-W notched two triples on top of that for 9 total extra-base hits.  Every Warhawk tallied at least one hit and UW-W combined for 18 in the game.

The first three innings of game two hummed along with the Warhawks scoring the only run in the bottom of the third on a solo homer by Dylan Friend (Burlington/Burlington), his third of the season.  Then UW-W went to work at the plate.  The Warhawks scored 7 runs in each of the next two innings to jump out to a 15-0 lead.

Gonzalez led off the fourth with a solo homerun to center.  UW-W worked to load the bases and Jared Fon (Germantown/Germantown) was hit by a pitch to force another run across the plate.  Friend followed with a single that scored two more and then Pierce homered to left field to score runs 5, 6, and 7 in the inning.

The fifth started with some small ball as Trey Cannon (Palatine, IL/Palatine) moved Casey Power (Ontario, Canada/Belle River), who singled to lead off the inning, to second with a sacrifice bunt.  Mike Mierow (Brookfield/Central) followed with a single to score Power.  Two batters later Kyle Haen (Madison/Edgewood) doubled to plate Mierow.  Later the Warhawks loaded the bases again and this time Pierce came through with a two-RBI single to left.  The Warhawks scored a run in each of their next two at bats for their final two runs of the game.

The Titans grabbed a run in the sixth and another in the seventh to make it 15-2, but Justin Mortensen (Hartland/Arrowhead) struckout the final two batters to end the game.

Connor Hurst (Waunakee/Waunakee) improved to 3-1 for UW-W, throwing 6 innings, scattering eight hits and giving up just one run.

Mierow and Pierce led the Warhawks with six hits each in the doubleheader.  Mierow added two runs and four RBIs while Pierce chipped in four runs and six RBIs.  Dylan Friend (Burlington/Burlington) did damage as well going 3-for-8 with three runs and four RBIs.  Friend, and teammate Gonzalez, each extended their hitting streaks to eight games.  Pierce has reached base safely in every game this season.

The Warhawks will travel to UW-La Crosse this weekend for a pair of doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday.  The first game starts at noon each day.