SAINT PETER, Minn.- UW-Oshkosh baseball won its 18th NCAA Division III Regional championship on Sunday (May 18) when it defeated the University of Chicago (Ill.), 10-2, in the second game of the regional tournament championship at Gustavus Adolphus College's (Minn.) Gustie Baseball Field.
 
The Maroons (28-16) forced the winner-takes-all game seven with a 7-3 win in the 11 a.m. game and led by two runs as late as the sixth inning in the 2 p.m. game, however the Titans (34-14) scored 10 runs across the last three frames to reach the first Super Regional in program history. Super regionals were introduced to Division III for the 2019 season.
 
UW-Oshkosh's most recent regional title was won in 2003 when the team defeated Ripon College once and UW-Whitewater twice to reach the World Series at the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers' Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute.
 
The Titans will face UW-Whitewater in the Super Regional at a site to be determined on May 23-24. The winner of the best-of-three series will advance to the 2025 NCAA Division III Baseball World Series at Classic Auto Group Park in Eastlake, Ohio. The World Series will take place from May 30 to June 5.
 
UW-Oshkosh has reached the World Series 17 times since it transitioned to NCAA Division III affiliation for the 1979 season, including 16 times in 19 years between 1979 and 1998.
 
The Titans reached this season's regional championship with a 34-8 win over Chicago on Friday (May 16) and a 15-10 victory on Saturday (May 17) over Gustavus Adolphus (37-9).
 
UW-Oshkosh batted as the home team in the first game and as the away team in the second.
 
Brett Gaynor (Long Grove, Ill./Stevenson) started on the mound in the early game and pitched 7.1 innings with five strikeouts including two in the seventh. He faced the minimum in five innings while allowing seven runs on nine hits and two walks. He was assigned the loss and dropped to 6-3 on the season.
 
Parker Thompson (Wauwatosa/Wauwatosa East) finished the game, throwing 1.2 innings. He held the Maroons without a run on a hit and a walk.
 
Mason Kirchberg (DeForest/DeForest) collected a pair of hits in the day's first game and scored a run. Jack McNamara (La Grange, Ill./Lyons) went 1-for-2 with two walks and a two-RBI double.
 
The Maroons jump on Gaynor out of the gate, knocking a leadoff single before scoring on a double. Gaynor induced a pair of groundouts to Owen Housinger (Hawthorn Woods, Ill./Stevenson) at third base and a flyout to Jack McKellips (Oshkosh/Lourdes Academy) to end the inning.
 
The Titans got their first baserunners on in the bottom of the second inning on a walk for Carter Stebane (Brillion/Brillion) and a single for Housinger with one out. They pulled off a double steal to reach second and third before McKellips drew a walk to load the bases. Chicago thwarted Oshkosh's attempt to score by striking out Kirchberg and McNamara.
 
In the top of the third inning, Chicago singled and walked for runners on first and second base with two outs. Gaynor was a strike away from ending the inning, however Max Wiesner took him yard and increased the Maroons' edge to 4-0.
 
Logan Schill (Pewaukee/Pewaukee) led off the Oshkosh half of the third inning with a hit by pitch and swiped second before Nick Shiu (Gurnee, Ill./Warren Township) was also hit by a pitch which led to a change on the mound for Chicago. Schill stole his second base of the inning to put runners on first and third before scoring when Jake Surane (Lincolnshire, Ill./Stevenson) reached on a fielder's choice that put out Shiu at second. A lineout double play ended the inning with the score at 4-1.
 
After Gaynor sat the Maroons down in order in the top of the fourth, Housinger got on base when he was hit by a pitch and later scored with Kirchberg who reached on a single when McNamara doubled to left field.
 
Neither team could reach second base in the next three innings, and the score was still 4-1 when the top of the eighth began. Chicago opened the game up with three runs on four hits, two walks, and an error while leaving three stranded on base when Thompson induced a fielder's choice groundout to end the frame.
 
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Stebane singled to center with and out and advanced to second on a wild pitch to become the first Titan in scoring position since the fourth inning, but a pair of outs left him there.
 
The Maroons recorded a leadoff single and threatened the expand the deficit in the ninth inning with a steal and a tag on a flyout but the runner on third was caught in a lineout double play to Schill in left field.
 
Just like the third inning, Chicago changed pitchers after two batters reached base. Kirchberg beat out a single to the shortstop and McNamara drew a walk to force the change. After the swap, the Maroons got the first out on a lineout and turned a double play to force the winner-take-all game seven.
 
Oshkosh turned to Connor Walters (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) to start the second game. Making his first appearance of the NCAA tournament, he pitched all nine innings, allowing two runs on four hits, two walks, and one hit batter while striking out five. He moved to 6-4 on the year with the complete game.
 
The middle of UW-Oshkosh's lineup produced seven of the team's nine hits in game two with three from Stebane and two from Surane. Stebane went 3-for-4 with a walk, a home run, three runs, three RBIs, and a stolen base. Surane notched his pair of hits in three at-bats with three runs scored and reached base twice more on hit by pitches. Kirchberg also had four RBIs on a 2-for-4 trip to the plate. He had one of the Titans' doubles along with Taylor who scored two runs. Jack McKellips (Oshkosh/Lourdes Academy) may have gone 0-for-2 in at-bats, but he reached first base three times when Maroon pitchers plunked him in the box, scored a run, and recorded an RBI.
 
While Walters sat the Maroons down in order in each of the first three innings, Stebane represented Oshkosh's first baserunner of the game when he singled to left field and stole his second base of the day in the second inning. Chicago escaped the inning unscathed when McKellips went down swinging.
 
The Maroons scored the first run of the second championship game in the bottom of the fourth inning with a groundout RBI and added another run in the fifth when their leadoff runner hit a home run.
 
After a scoreless sixth inning, Surane led off the seventh with a single and reached third when Zach Taylor (Long Grove, Ill./Stevenson) doubled down the left field line. Carter Stebane (Brillion/Brillion) then set a single down in right field that scored Surane and moved Taylor to third. Following a Maroon pitching change, McKellips was hit by a pitch and Kirchberg singled through the middle of the infield on a full count to send Taylor and Stebane home and give the Titans their first lead of the day. Chicago made its second pitching change of the game and the fifth of the day and stranded two runners on base with a pair of infield outs.
 
Surane and Taylor were each hit by a pitch with an out in the eighth inning which brought the Maroons' coach out yet again to make a change on the mound. Stebane drew a walk from the newest Chicago pitcher to load the bases. Housinger scored Surane with a single between the shortstop and third baseman before Oshkosh went up, 5-2, when McKellips earned first base with the third hit by pitch of the inning to score Taylor. The Maroons then went to their bullpen for the second time of the eighth inning. The bases remained loaded, and one out was on the scoreboard when Kirchberg came up to bat. He hit the ball all the way to the left field fence, but the Maroons were there to make the catch, and all three batters tagged up. McNamara drew a walk to reload the bags with two outs, but Schill hit directly to the second baseman for a play at second. UW-Oshkosh led by a score of 6-2 after the inning, scoring three runs on a hit, two walks, three hit batters, and a sacrifice fly.
 
After the long top of the eighth, Walters induced a flyout to McKellips in right and a groundout to Housinger at third before putting a batter on base. He then finished the eighth inning for the second time this season when the next batter flew out to McKellips.
 
Shiu drew a four-pitch walk as the first batter of Oshkosh's half of the ninth inning and Aaron Davis (Darien, Ill./Downers Grove South) came out to pinch run for the designated hitter, stealing second on a ball in the dirt before Surane was hit by a pitch for the second inning in a row. Chicago called once again to its deep bullpen after Surane reached first and its seventh pitcher of the game came to the mound. Taylor took the first pitch he saw over the fence just outside the left field foul pole, flying out to center field two pitches later. Davis tagged up on the play. Stebane pulled another pitch foul past the left field fence before ripping five straight foul balls between a pair of balls. He took the eighth pitch of the at-bat inside the left field foul pole, for a three-run home run that made the score 9-2. Chicago finally got its second out when Housinger flew out to center field and McKellips was hit by a pitch for the third time in the game a batter later. Kirchberg ripped the ball under the diving third baseman to score McKellips from first but was thrown out trying to leg out a triple.
 
Walters got his first out of the ninth inning with a first pitch flyout to Surane in center field and his second when Housinger made the play on a grounder. He completed his first complete game of the season when the final out was caught by McKellips out in right field.