Green Knights Get Split With UW-Oshkosh

From Sports Information Director, April 4, 2009 | Baseball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

OSHKOSH - St. Norbert College picked up its first win over UW-Oshkosh in Oshkosh on the baseball diamond since 1977 with a doubleheader split with the Titans at Tiedemann Field.

The Green Knights 5-4 win in the opener was their first since an 8-6 triumph on May 2, 1977. The Titans rebounded to salvage a split with a 7-4 victory. St. Norbert improved to 8-6 on the year, while the 30th-ranked Titans dropped to 10-6.

St. Norbert scored the game-winning run in the top of the ninth inning. Ryan Gusick pinch-hit and led off the inning with a single. Following a sacrifice bunt and a groundout, Jared Yost tripled into the right field corner for the go-ahead run.

The Green Knights took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Tony Jandron singled in Yost. The Green Knights added two runs in the fourth on a Garrick Fisher RBI groundout and an infield error. St. Norbert took a 4-0 lead in the fifth on a Jandron double to drive in Yost.

The Titans struggled against Jandron, who worked the first seven innings. Jandron allowed just five hits and three walks with 12 strikeouts before giving way to Trevin Hillesheim in the eighth. Oshkosh scored three runs on three hits and left two on in scoring position in the eighth, but Hillesheim set the Titans down in order in the bottom of the ninth.

Jandron was 2-for-5 for the only multi-hit game for the Green Knights, which had five hits in the game. St. Norbert scored four unearned runs in the game thanks to five Oshkosh errors.

St. Norbert held a 4-2 lead in the fifth in the nightcap before Oshkosh scored four times in the bottom of the fifth to take control. Cory Fuller had an RBI infield single and Jrodan Vater a run-scoring double in the fourth. Yost drove in Ryan Kehl on an infield single in the fifth, followed by a Jandron RBI single.

St. Norbert stole six bases in the nightcap and got a 2-for-3 performance from Kehl and a 2-for-4 showing from Yost. The Green Knights had nine hits in the nightcap.

Justin Wotachek took the oss for St. Norbert, allowing seven hits and six runs in 4 2/3 innings.