WHITEWATER, Wis.- The second game in the 2025 WIAC Baseball Tournament (presented by Culver's) had it all: a broken conference record, a pitchers' duel through the first five innings, a 10-run inning, and a 15-4 win for UW-Oshkosh.
 
The Titans (30-11) entered this weekend's tournament with the three seed. They swept UW-Platteville, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Stevens Point, and UW-Stout, earned a series win over UW-River Falls, and beat UW-Whitewater in the April 10 nightcap. The one team they did not find a win against in the 28-game WIAC schedule was second-seeded UW-La Crosse.
 
That changed on Thursday (May 8) afternoon.
 
After the Eagles scored the first run of the game and added three more in the sixth inning after UW-Oshkosh got on the board in the second, Zach Taylor (Long Grove, Ill./Stevenson) powered a three-run home run over the left field fence in the seventh to knot the score up at four runs apiece. The Titans recorded 10 runs on eight hits, two errors, and three walks in the eighth inning before Ryan Richter (Waukesha/Waukesha West) secured the run-rule win with three straight outs in the bottom half of the frame.
 
In all, the Titans, ranked No. 25 in the nation by D3baseball.com and No. 23 by the American Baseball Coaches Association, had 21 hits including three doubles, a triple, a home run, two stolen bases, five walks, two hit batters, and three batters reach on an error in 53 plate appearances.
 
Connor Brinkman (New London/New London) started on the mound for Oshkosh. Across seven innings, he struck out five batters and retired 20 of the 31 batters he faced including two strikeouts in the third inning, and three up-three down frames in the second, fourth, and seventh innings. With the win, he moved to a 6-2 record this season.
 
Every position player for Oshkosh had at least one hit and one run in the contest and five recorded at least two RBIs. Taylor went 4-for-6 at Prucha Field at Jim Miller Stadium with a home run, three runs, and four RBIs. Brenden Max (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) hit 5-for-6, tallying two runs and three RBIs. Jake Surane (Lincolnshire, Ill./Stevenson) stole his program-leading 88th and 89th career bases and scored a pair of runs on 2-for-4 at the plate with a walk.
 
UW-Oshkosh started its postseason trek with back-to-back hits to lead off the first inning and had runners on second and third in the first inning but stranded both on the basepath. La Crosse took advantage of the opportunity by scoring on a double in the bottom of the inning.
 
Max hit a one-out single to left field in the second inning and moved to third when Mason Kirchberg (DeForest/DeForest) doubled down the right field line before consecutive hit by pitches for Logan Schill (Pewaukee/Pewaukee) and Nick Shiu (Gurnee, Ill./Warren Township) advanced him home for the Titans' first run.
 
Brinkman and the Eagles' starting pitcher, Chance Osterhaus, worked scoreless frames from the bottom off the second to the top of the sixth. With his third strikeout of the game for the third out of the third inning, Brinkman officially passed Bill Verbrick, who pitched for UW-Stevens Point from 1999-2002 for the most innings pitched in WIAC history. He currently sits at 298.1 innings.
 
The Eagles reclaimed the lead in the sixth inning, scoring runs on a trio of RBI singles for a 4-1 edge.
 
Shiu and Surane singled as the first two batters of the seventh inning and scored when Taylor, the third batter, hit his sixth home run of the year to once again tie the game. Owen Housinger (Hawthorn Woods, Ill./Stevenson) represented the go-ahead run later in the inning, crossing the plate on a Jack McNamara (La Grange, Ill./Lyons) bases loaded single after reaching with a single of his own.
 
The Titans nearly batted around the order twice in the eighth inning. They forced La Crosse to use three different pitchers in the inning by scoring eight runs before the first out was recorded. Housinger hit a two-run ground-rule double, Max hit a two-run single, Schill cleared the bases with a triple before scoring on a fielding error, Taylor singled down the right field line for his fourth RBI of the game, and Max recorded his third RBI of the inning with a single to left center.
 
Brinkman threw a four-pitch walk to the first batter of the bottom of the eighth and ended his day there. Richter fanned the first Eagle he faced, induced a pop up for the second, and forced a play at second base for the third to end the game.
 
Fourth-seeded UW-Platteville (20-19) upset top seed and host UW-Whitewater (35-5) in the noon game on Thursday, 6-3. The Pioneers and Titans will play each other in the 1 p.m. game on Friday (May 9) while the Eagles and Warhawks will face at 10 a.m. The winner of the 10 a.m. game and the loser of the 1 p.m. game play at 4 p.m. The winners of Friday's second and third games will compete for the WIAC Tournament title on Saturday (May 8).