Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 OSHKOSH, Wis.- UW-Oshkosh dropped a pair of contests to UW-Eau Claire in the first day of WIAC competition at Tiedemann Field Saturday (March 28) afternoon by scores of 11-4 and 6-3.
 
The Titans (4-9, 0-2 WIAC) were held to 13 hits between the pair of contests while the Blugolds (8-4) collected 21, including 13 in the first game.
 
Logan Schill (Pewaukee/Pewaukee) and Jack McKellips (Oshkosh/Lourdes Academy) collected a team-high three hits on the day. Schill scored a run in each game and knocked his team leading third home run of the season while adding a double.
 
Brenden Max (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) and McKellips added doubles of their own and David Wick (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) swiped a base.
 
Josh Jansen (DeForest/DeForest) (0-3) was assigned the loss in game one after giving up eight runs (seven earned) on 11 hits, three walks and a hit batter while striking out five batters, including two in the fourth frame, across five innings.
 
Nick Gilroy (Oconomowoc/Arrowhead Union) scattered two hits and fanned two Blugolds in the sixth inning but gave up three more runs. Kael Johns (Waukesha/Catholic Memorial), Benje Hencke (De Pere/West De Pere) and Joe Richardson (Lake Forest, Ill./Stevenson) all pitched an inning each. Hencke escaped a bases loaded, one-out situation in the eighth with consecutive swinging strikeouts and Richardson sat down to batters and induced a groundout during a three-up, three-down top of the ninth.
 
Blugold starter Nicholas Meuser was awarded his second victory of the season following a five-inning performance that saw him allow one earned run (three total) on two hits, two walks and a hit batter against four strikeouts.
 
Eau Claire struck first in the opener with a three-run home run in the top of the first inning and never trailed in the game. Following a three-batter bottom half of the frame for Oshkosh, the Blugolds added an RBI double in the top of the second for an early 4-0 edge.
 
Oshkosh got on the board in the bottom of the second inning. Danny Connelly (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) reached on a fielder's choice and Aaron Davis (Darien, Ill./Downers Grove South) walked before both moving up a base when Gavin Persson (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) fouled out and both raced home when McKellips got on base with the help of a misplayed ball to center field.
 
Both teams scored two-out runs in the third inning. Will Johnson tallied Eau Claire's fifth run on a sacrifice fly by Kellen Smith after reaching on an error while Schill roped a double to left field before making the score 5-3 as Jack McNamara (La Grange, Ill./Lyons) singled to center.
 
After a scoreless fourth frame, the Blugolds scored three runs in both the fifth and sixth innings. The Titans went down in order in the fifth and stranded Max, who doubled to left center, on second base in the sixth.
 
Persson led off the Titans' half of the seventh inning with a single and moved over to third on a double to right center by McKellips before Wick sent him across the plate with a single.
 
In the home half of the ninth inning, Persson drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second when McKellips reached on an error for the second time and reached third as Carter Monroe (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) grounded out into a double play but remained 90 feet from home plate after the third out was recorded.
 
Baris Brua (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) (0-2) struck out 10 of the 32 batters he faced as Oshkosh's game two starter while inducing another 11 outs, however Eau Claire made the most of the remaining 11 plate appearances by tallying six runs (five earned) on seven hits, three walks and an error. Brua retired Eau Claire batters in order in the first, fourth and sixth innings while recording three strikeouts in the sixth and two in the third, fourth and fifth.
 
Ethan Wick (Appleton/Appleton North) pitched the eighth inning for the Titans and added another strikeout against no runs before Ryan Richter (Waukesha/Waukesha West) worked around a one-out single with three Ks in the ninth.
 
Evan Fischer evened his season record at 2-2 on the mound for the Blugolds with three strikeouts against three runs on six hits, a walk and a hit batter across seven innings. Sebastian De La Toba then earned his first save of the year, coming in to pitch the final two innings and allowed one hit and a walk with one strikeout.
 
Davis singled through the middle of the infield in the bottom of the second inning, eventually racing home from second base on a Persson single to left field to break an early 0-0 tie after McKellips laid down a sacrifice bunt to move him to second.
 
The Blugolds responded with a five-run top of the third inning, scoring runs on an error, a sacrifice fly and a bases-clearing double down the left field line by Austin Curti.
 
After Eau Claire created a 6-1 deficit in the top half of the fifth inning, McKellips singled down the right field line as Oshkosh's first batter of the bottom half of the frame. He made his way around the horn when Persson was hit by a pitch and Cullen Kirchberg (DeForest/DeForest) put down another sacrifice bunt before reaching home safely as Ben Volpe (Whitefish Bay/Whitefish Bay) grounded out to second base.
 
Following Brua's three-strikeout sixth frame, Schill took a Fischer pitch over the left field fence to bring the Titans within three runs at 6-3.
 
While Brua, Wick and Richter worked to keep the Blugolds off the board in the last three innings, Oshkosh's offense put a runner in scoring position just once. McKellips took a leadoff walk in the seventh inning, moved to second on a passed ball and advanced to third as Kirchberg grounded out. Volpe hit into a groundout to end the inning and leave McKellips on base.

The Titans and Blugolds take the field again on Sunday (March 28) for their second doubleheader at Tiedemann Field starting at noon.