The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater baseball team split a pair of games with UW-Oshkosh Monday afternoon in Whitewater. The Warhawks won the opener 5-4 and lost the nightcap 6-5 to split the overall series with the Titans 2-2.
UWW won the opener in thrilling fashion. After Oshkosh got on the board in the first, the next six innings were a pitchers' duel with zeros on the scoreboard until the eighth. Hitting the top of the inning as the away team due to the games originally being scheduled in Oshkosh, the Warhawks claimed the lead in the top of the eighth in a big way.
The Titans secured the first two outs of the frame but
Ryan Norton (Fond du Lac, Wis./Fond du Lac) started the two-out rally drawing a walk.
Matt Scolan (Downers Grove, Ill./South) followed with a single to left field and
Jacob DeMeyer (Rhinelander, Wis./Rhinelander) drew another walk to load the bases.
Sam Vomhof (DeForest, Wis./DeForest) stepped to the plate and sent a long ball sailing over the left field wall for the grand slam and a 4-1 UWW lead.
In the bottom of the frame, the Warhawks got a fly out and then Vomhof came up big on the defensive side. The second baseman charged a high bouncer up the middle, bare-handed and fired to first for the second out. However, like UWW's two-out rally, UWO ended up knotting the game after back-to-back singles and a three-run blast.
Donovan Brandl (Rudolph, Wis./Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln) led off the top of the ninth with a single to right field. He advance to second on the second out of the inning before coming around to score on a single to left center for the eventual game winner.
Matt Scolan (Downers Grove, Ill./South) and
Bennett Frazer (Oconto, Wis./Oconto) each tallied a pair of hits to lead UWW at the plate.
Cade Berendt (Germantown, Wis./Germantown) had a fantastic start striking out ten in seven innings of work. He scattered five hits over that span without allowing a single earned run.
Max Huseboe (Ripon, Wis./Ripon) picked up the win in an inning of relief while
Sam Paden (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) closed out the ninth for the save.
The Titans flipped the script in game two capitalizing on a Warhawk miscue to plate four runs in the four to take a 5-3 lead. UWW battled back to knot the game 5-5 in the top of the eighth, once again scoring with two outs.
Alex Najera (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles North) single and came around to score on Frazer's triple to right field. Frazer touched on an errant throw to tie the game.
A leadoff double for UWO in the bottom of the frame led to the go-ahead and eventual game winning run for the Titans.
Frazer led UWW at the plate going 2-4 with a RBI and two runs scored.
Logan Eisenbarth (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) took the loss on the mound in 3.2 innings of relief.
