WHITEWATER, Wis.- UW-Oshkosh baseball scored five runs in the first inning of its doubleheader at UW-Whitewater's Prucha Field on Wednesday (April 8) but lost the opener by a score of 8-7 and dropped the nightcap, 15-6.
 
Oshkosh (8-13, 4-6 WIAC) trailed the Warhawks (18-3, 10-0 WIAC) in hits (22-20) and committed six errors to Whitewater's three. The Titans outhomered the Warhawks, ranked seventh in NCAA Division III by D3baseball.com and ninth by the American Baseball Coaches Association, 3-2, but fell behind in extra-base hits, 7-6.
 
Braydon Skenandore (De Pere/West De Pere) led the Titans at the plate with a 4-for-8 day between the pair of games, recording a pair of runs, two RBI and a home run in the second contest and drawing a walk in each.
 
Logan Schill (Pewaukee/Pewaukee) registered a team-high four RBI while hitting 2-for-8 with a walk and a hit by pitch in the first game. He was also one of three Titans to home run in the second game. Owen Housinger (Hawthorn Woods, Ill./Stevenson) hit the third.
 
In their first away WIAC games of the season, the Titans jumped out to the early 5-0 edge, scoring three runs with one out and two runs with two outs. Trevor Morris (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) took a full count walk as the game's leadoff runner and Logan Schill (Pewaukee/Pewaukee) moved him to third base with a single through the left side after Skenandore grounded out and advanced Morris to second. Jack McNamara (La Grange, Ill./Lyons) laid down a sacrifice bunt that scored Morris and reached on a fielding error by the Warhawks before Danny Connelly (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) and Brenden Max (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) recorded back-to-back RBI singles to make the score 3-0. Housinger plated Connelly with a two-out single through the right side of the infield and Max stole home while Owen Housinger (Hawthorn Woods, Ill./Stevenson) was caught in an inning-ending pickle for the Titans' fifth run.
 
The Warhawks got on the board in the second inning, tallying a pair of runs on a single up the middle of Oshkosh's starter Kael Johns (Waukesha/Catholic Memorial). After fending off Whitewater in the first inning with a pair of strikeouts and stranding two runners on base, the Warhawks put their first two runners on base in the second frame on errors and eventually scored both.
 
Benje Hencke (De Pere/West De Pere) relieved Johns in the third inning after Johns walked his first batter and allowed another two-RBI single before Colton Kachinsky (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way West) came in as relief. Oshkosh's third pitcher of the game gave up the lead at 6-5 before getting out of the inning with a first-pitch flyout to Schill in center field.
 
Whitewater scored one run in the fifth inning and another in the sixth to create an 8-5 edge that it took into the ninth inning.
 
The Titans pinch hit Cullen Kirchberg (DeForest/DeForest) in the top of the ninth inning and he delivered a one-out single before Morris and Skenandore both worked walks to load the bases. Whitewater then walked Schill to score Kirchberg and McNamara notched his second RBI of the game with a groundout that scored Skenandore before Connelly flew out to right field for the final out of the game.
 
Hencke (1-2), who did not record an out, was assigned the loss as he gave up three runs (two earned) on two hits and a walk.
 
Sam Steuber (3-0), Whitewater's first reliever, earned the win across 4.0 innings of work. He did not allow a run and scattered four hits with a walk against three strikeouts. Franklin Kirchner earned his third save of the season by recording the final two outs of the game.
 
Whitewater jumped out to a first-inning lead of 5-0 in the second game and added two more runs before Oshkosh got on the board. The Warhawks chased Ethan Wick (Appleton/Appleton North) after he delivered walks to their first two batters of the frame and Hoyt Keller (Wautoma/Wautoma) allowed three hits and a walk before recording the third out.
 
Wick (0-1) was assigned the loss.
 
Following a Whitewater solo home run in the second inning and a sacrifice fly in the third, Housinger hit a solo home run in the top of the fourth between three strikeouts to get Oshkosh on the board.
 
Skenandore scored both himself and Morris, who walked, in the fifth inning to make the score 7-3 before a disastrous bottom of the sixth inning plated six Warhawk runs on four hits and two errors.
 
Schill held off the run-rule loss in the seventh inning with a three-run shot that scored Morris and Skenandore to make the score 13-6. The home run was Schill's team-high fourth of the year. Both Morris and Skenandore singled for their second and third hits of the game, respectively.
 
Whitewater scored on an RBI double in the seventh inning and an RBI single in the eighth to represent its final two of 23 runs on the day.
 
Jackson Koenig (3-0) pitched the win for Whitewater, throwing 6.0 innings and striking out 11 Titans while allowing three runs on five hits and three walks.
 
The Titans head to Platteville to face the Pioneers (14-7, 5-5 WIAC) in a pair of doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday (April 11-12). Oshkosh is 176-48 against Platteville since 1956 including a current five-game winning streak and a 7-3 mark in the last 10 matchups.