Whitewater, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse baseball team fell, 11-4, to UW-Oshkosh in an elimination game at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tournament (presented by Culver's) Friday afternoon at UW-Whitewater's Prucha Field at James B. Miller Stadium. The Eagles fall to 24-18 while the Titans improve to 24-18 and advance to the tournament title game Saturday, May 14 versus UW-Stevens Point.
The winner of the tournament earns the league's automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Championships.
UWL will await word if its earned an at-large bid to the NCAA III Championships. The field will be announced Monday, May 16.
UW-Oshkosh took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first Friday. Eric Modaff and Jake Surane opened the game with singles and both stole a base to move into scoring position. Modaff scored on Matt Scherrman's RBI groundout with the first run of the game and Zach Taylor followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.
The Titans added to their lead in the top of the second as Ethan Schreier and Chase Marsh both had singles to start the inning. Marsh then stole second with Schreier coming into score on an Eagles' throwing error.
Marsh and Jake Andersen hit back-to-back home runs in the top of the sixth to give UW-Oshkosh a 5-0 lead. Connor Giusti doubled and scored on Surane's two-out double to make it 6-0.
UWL got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth.
Mac Born reached on a two-out error and scored on
George Seaman's home run.
UW-Oshkosh took a 7-2 lead in the top of the seventh on Schreier's sacrifice fly. UWL got the run back in the bottom of the inning as
Colton Schraepfer singled with two outs, stole second and scored on
Zach Carney's single. The Titans tallied four times in the eighth on Taylor's two-run double and RBI singles from Marsh and Andersen.
The Eagles got a run in the ninth on Carney's infield single scoring
Tommy Nelsen.
UWL finished with nine hits. Carney and Seaman each had two hits and two RBI.
Jacob Bryant (3-3) suffered the loss, going 1.0 inning, allowing two hits and two runs with one strikeout.
UW-Oshkosh totaled 17 hits with Marsh going 4-for-5 and two RBI. Modaff finished with three hits while Surane, Taylor, Andersen and Nicholas Shiu each had two. Taylor finished with three RBI with Modaff, Surane and Schreier each scoring twice.
