Baseball falls to UW-Oshkosh

OSHKOSH, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-Platteville baseball team dropped a twin-bill to UW-Oshkosh, 9-6 and 4-3, on Saturday at Tiedemann Field.

With the two losses on Saturday, the Pioneers (10-26, 5-15 WIAC) still have a small chance of getting into the WIAC tournament next weekend. UW-Platteville will have to sweep the Titans (21-10, 10-8 WIAC) on Sunday and then sweep fifth-ranked UW-Whitewater (30-5, 19-2 WIAC) on Wednesday to have a chance to get into the tournament.

GAME ONE: UW-Platteville 6, UW-Oshkosh 9

UW-Oshkosh struck first in the opening inning, taking a 1-0 lead. The Pioneers answered with two runs of their own in the top of the second. UW-Platteville managed to load up the bases and senior Tyler Jacobson managed to come through with a two-RBI sacrifice fly putting the Pioneers up 2-1.

The Pioneers kept their momentum going in the third inning and took 5-1 advantage. Freshman Casey Schroeder led off with a  double and then scored the next batter on sophomore Evan Greco's double to right center. Junior Zach Demmon blasted a two-run homer giving the Pioneers a 5-1 advantage.

The Titans responded in the bottom half of the third with two runs cutting the Pioneers' lead to 5-3.

In the fourth frame, Jacobson led off with a single and moved a to third, and with two-outs he stole home to push the Pioneers lead to 6-3.

A Pioneer miscue prolonged the Titans' fourth inning, which allowed UWO to manufacture two runs making it a one-run game, 6-5.

Another error in the fifth inning by UW-Platteville extended Oshkosh's inning and helped the Titans take a 9-6 lead. Rookie Austin Daniels recorded the final out of the fifth and gave the Pioneers a chance as he threw 3.1 relief scoreless innings and only allowed one hit.

Senior Bill Oppriecht suffered the loss as the allowed nine runs (six earned) in 4.2 innings of work.

The Pioneer hitters were patient at the dish as they drew six walks and tallied eight hits. Freshmen Ryan Lehmann and Schroeder each recorded a pair of hits.

GAME TWO: UW-Platteville 3, UW-Oshkosh 4

The Pioneers scored the game's first run in the third on Schroeder's sacrifice fly, 1-0. The Titans answered with a run of their own in the bottom half of the third tying the game up at 1-1.

Three UWO hits in the fourth inning pushed two two-runners across the dish giving the Titans a 3-1 lead.

The Pioneers tied the game up at 3-3 in the seventh. UW-Platteville started the inning off with four consecutive hits. Junior Ryan Duva came up with the fourth hit in the frame driving home Lehmann and senior Bobby Patton. With no outs and Jacobson at third the Pioneers couldn't manage push the go ahead run across.

A Titan solo homer to lead off the eighth was the eventual game-winning run, 4-3.

Senior Adam Theis took the loss and threw all eight innings for the Pioneers. He allowed eight hits and four runs with three strikeouts.

UW-Platteville out hit the Titans 9-8 and the Pioneers left eight runners on base to UWO's seven. Patton led the team with three hits and Duva came up with two hits of his own.

The Pioneers and the Titans wrap up the weekend series on Sunday starting at noon.