BLOOMINGTON, Ill.- UW-Oshkosh baseball fought back from a 7-3 deficit in the eighth inning with a pair of home runs from Jack McKellips (Oshkosh/Lourdes Academy) and Logan Schill (Pewaukee/Pewaukee) but gave up a 10th-inning RBI single to Illinois Wesleyan in the second of a three-day series at IWU's Horenberger Field.
 
Illinois Wesleyan (2-12) evened the season series at 1-1 with 11 hits, including two doubles, a tripe and a home run. Oshkosh (4-5), receiving votes in the most recent American Baseball Coaches Association poll, collected six hits, including a double and two home runs while taking advantage of three IWU errors.
 
Trevor Morris (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) was the only Titan to get at least two hits on Saturday and McKellips scored a team-high two runs on a 1-for-3 day at the plate with two walks and an RBI. Schill led all hitters with three RBI.
 
Connor Walters (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) started on the mound for Oshkosh and pitched 7.1 innings, fanning two Illinois Wesleyan batters against seven runs on 10 hits, two walks and a hit batter. Ryan Richter (Waukesha/Waukesha West) (0-2) came in during the eighth inning and recorded the last two outs of the frame and pitched a scoreless ninth before giving up the game-winning RBI single in the tenth.
 
Illinois Wesleyan jumped out to an early 5-0 lead with four runs in the bottom of the first inning and one in the second.
 
Both pitchers tossed scoreless frames in the third, fourth and fifth innings.
 
Oshkosh cut the deficit to 5-3 in the top of the sixth inning. Morris led off with a single and McKellips drew a walk and Skenandore took a pitch to load the bases for Owen Housinger (Hawthorn Woods, Ill./Stevenson), who drew a four-pitch walk to send Morris home. McKellips and Skenandore both scored on wild pitches during Danny Connelly's (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) at-bat.
 
Gavin Wolfe added to Illinois Wesleyan's lead in the bottom of the sixth inning with a solo home run, and after a scoreless seventh, McKellips took IWU reliever Caleb Martinex yard to kick off Oshkosh's four-run half of the eighth. Housinger and Connelly reached base on a hit by pitch and single before Schill homered to right center to hand the Titans their first lead of the game.
 
Walters was pulled in the bottom of the eighth after Illinois Wesleyan tied the game on an RBI single. Richter hit his first batter before recording two straight outs to escape the inning.
 
After neither team advanced past second base in the ninth inning, Tim Witchger (Chicago, Ill./Notre Dame College Prep) came in to pinch hit for Ben Volpe (Whitefish Bay/Whitefish Bay) at the top of the 10th and roped the first pitch he saw to left field for a double. David Wick (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) pinch ran for Witchger and moved over to third when Brenden Max (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) laid down a sacrifice bunt. However, he was stranded on base as Connelly lined out and Schill grounded out for the second and third outs.
 
Illinois Wesleyan got on base in the bottom half of the 10th inning on a leadoff walk and advanced the runner with a sacrifice bunt and an error before scoring on a Matt Hudik single.
 
Illinois Wesleyan collected its second-ever win in the series between the teams and broke a 12-game losing streak that dated back to Oshkosh's 10-5 victory in Memphis, Tenn. on March 21, 1997.
 
Oshkosh wraps up its three-game series with Illinois Wesleyan on Sunday (March 22) at 11 a.m.