AUBURNDALE, Fla.- UW-Oshkosh baseball held a 1-0 lead headed into the top of the ninth inning of Friday morning's (March 6) game against Concordia University Chicago (Ill.), but the Cougars mounted a two-run comeback and held on through the Titans' half of the inning for a 2-1 win.
 
The Titans (1-1), ranked 19th in the nation by D3baseball.com and 14th by the American Baseball Coaches Association, totaled two hits, five walks and a hit by pitch against the Cougars' (3-6) six hits and a hit by pitch. Concordia Chicago stole two bases and Jack McKellips (Oshkosh/Lourdes Academy)
 
Aaron Davis (Darien, Ill./Downers Grove South) and McKellips were the only Titans to collect a hit in the contest. Owen Housinger (Hawthorn Woods, Ill./Stevenson) and David Wick (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) each collected a pair of walks while Gavin Persson (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) added another and Jack McNamara (La Grange, Ill./Lyons) was hit by a pitch.
 
Josh Jansen (DeForest/DeForest) (0-1) pitched eight scoreless innings and faced the first two batters of the ninth, collecting eight strikeouts, including two in the first inning and three in the third, against three hits and a hit batter. He allowed the first two Cougars to reach on a single in the top of the ninth inning and was relieved by Ryan Richter (Waukesha/Waukesha West), who finished the game. Both of Jansen's runners scored in the inning and he was assigned the loss. Richter fanned two batters and allowed another hit before stranding a pair of runners to end the frame.
 
Persson drew a two-out walk in the bottom of the second inning to become Oshkosh's first baserunner of the game, advancing to second on a walk to Wick and scored when Davis singled to left field.
 
Both teams' bats fell silent over the next six innings.
 
McNamara reached third base in the third inning when he was hit by a pitch and advanced on Housinger's walk and a groundout by Cash Kaczmarek (Barrington, Ill./Lake Zurich), but he was left there after Brenden Max (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) hit into a groundout.
 
The Cougars threatened the score in the fifth inning, putting a runner on third with a leadoff double and an advance to third on a groundout. Jansen got out of the inning unscathed by inducing a groundout to Housinger at third base.
 
 Concordia Chicago broke through in the top of the ninth inning by chasing Jansen on two consecutive no-out singles to left field. Richter loaded the bases with another single before getting a Cougar on a swinging strikeout. The Cougars scored their runs on a fielding error a fielder's choice and Richter got out of the inning with another strikeout.
 
Oshkosh grounded out in three straight at-bats in the bottom half of the inning to end the game.
 
The Titans will face the College of St. Scholastica (Minn.) (3-1) in their third game of the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational on Saturday (March 7) at 7:15 p.m. Eastern. Since the teams' first meeting in 1996, Oshkosh is 11-5 against the Saints and snapped a five-game skid in the last meeting, winning 4-2 during the 2018 edition of the RussMatt tournament.