UW-Oshkosh swept a pair of pitching duels from UW-Whitewater, 6-1 and 4-2, Thursday at Lawcon Field in Whitewater.

game one box score
game two box score

Whitewater's Jessica Stang (Minnetonka, MN/Minnetonka) and Oshkosh's Amy Suillivan matched pitches through nine innings, keeping the bats quiet as both allowed just four hits and one run. 

Shortstop Sydnee Wyss brought in the first run of the game with a single in the sixth, putting the Titans up 1-0.  Wyss' counterpart, #Amanda LeBeau, tripled with one out in the bottom half of that inning and came home on a wild pitch to knot the game at 1-1, where it stayed through two extra frames. 

The Titans got their first two runners on in the tenth, sacrificed them to second and third, and centerfielder Whitney Tornow singled to drive in what proved to be the game winning run.  But UW-O wasn't done, putting the game out of reach by loading the bases for Aerial Spang, who hit a grand slam to make it 6-1 Oshkosh.  Spang, a freshman playing second base, is credited with the first home run hit at Lawcon Field.  Lawcon is the temporary field being used by UW-Whitewater for the 2008 season while van Steenderen Field is being rebuilt.

Pitching, again, took center stage in game two.  Oshkosh scored once, on a Tornow RBI single, in the third, but that was the only tally on the board through six innings with Nikole Schulty (Woodstock, IL/Woodstock) on the hill for Whitewater and Ronessa Stampfli for Oshkosh. 

UW-O broke through in the top of the seventh, plating three unearned runs after a one out Warhawk error.  Tornow came through again, hitting a bases loaded double to put UW-O up 4-0. 

Freshman Lauren Rankins (Marengo, IL/Marengo), playing third, hit a two run home run in the bottom of the inning to put UW-W in the scoring column.  It was Rankins' fourth home run of the season.

UW-W is 16-6 and 4-2 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.  UW-Oshkioh is 15-7 overall and 5-2 in the league.

UW-Whitewater will host doubleheaders Saturday, Sunday and Monday --- all at home at Lawcon.  UW-River Falls will visit Saturday and UW-Stout Sunday, with both twinbills beginning at 12:00.  UW-W will host the University of Dubuque Monday at 3:00.  There is no charge for games at Lawcon, which is north of Wells Hall and east of Williams Center on campus.

For additional information:  Brenda Volk, UW-W coach