Zach Taylor provided the UW-Oshkosh baseball team a lead with a two-run homer in the top of the first inning, but nationally ranked Adrian College (Mich.) responded with eight unanswered runs over the next three frames on the way to a 10-4 win Saturday (Feb. 26) in Birmingham, Ala.

Adrian College (1-0), ranked fifth in the NCAA Division III by D3baseball.com, scored once in the home half of the first inning before adding four runs during the second frame and three more in the third to pull away.

Taylor's home run – the first by a Titan this season – was one of three UW-Oshkosh (0-2) hits as a trio of Adrian College pitchers combined to limit the Titans to one hit after the opening inning.

UW-Oshkosh's Matt Scherrman singled ahead of Taylor's two-out, two-run homer to left-center field. Jake Surane added a run-scoring double for the Titans during the fourth inning before Benjamin Jung scored on a wild pitch to trim the Titans' deficit to 8-4 in the top of the fifth frame.

Adrian College, playing its season opener after reaching the Division III World Series a year ago, collected 11 hits and walked seven times en route to picking up its third win in four meetings with UW-Oshkosh. The Bulldogs took the lead for good at 3-2 in the second inning following Andrew Atherton's two-run single.

Dylan Johnson went 3-for-4 at the plate and scored twice for the Bulldogs, who also received a pair of doubles and three runs batted in from AJ Miranda.

Adrian College relief pitcher Ryan Davis earned the win, tossing 3.2 hitless and scoreless innings with six strikeouts.

Scherrman (0-1), the Titans starting pitcher, suffered the loss after yielding six runs during the first two innings.

UW-Oshkosh's Harry Orth recorded a career-high nine strikeouts and allowed just one hit across 4.1 innings in relief of Scherrman. Connor Brinkman then followed with a scoreless inning of relief for the Titans.

The Titans concludes their trip to Alabama against Dominican University (Ill.) on Sunday (Feb. 27) in Hoover, Ala.

Photo by Jennifer Zuberbier