Series: (6-7, 7-6, 6-1, 8-5)
Record: 3-1
RAPG: 4.75
RSPG: 6.75
Diff: +2
Who’s Hot: Luke Westphal: 9 innings pitched allowed only 1 unearned run, gave up only 4 hits and one walk and got an incredible 16 strikeouts. All this despite his defense giving 4 extra outs to Stout.
Who’s Not: Phil Schreiber: Schreiber pitched 8 solid innings but was responsible for 6 of the 7 runs that the Blue Devils scored in game 1. His defense didn’t help him much by committing 2 errors in the bottom of the ninth.
I could have also added the Titan Defense and Jeremy Rubens to the who’s not list. Titans averaged 2.5 errors per game in the series. They haven’t gone a game without an error since March 26, when they were in Fort Myers Florida. For the season UWO averages just under 2 errors per game. It’s just tough to win ball games when your pitchers need to consistently get 29 outs instead of the customary 27. Not only that but errors are coming at crucial times. The 2 mentioned above in game one as well as 1 in the bottom on the ninth in game 2 that almost cost the Titans that game as well. Unfortunately I’ve come expect that from this team, what I didn’t expect was for the Titans best pitcher by far, Jeremy Rubens, to not take the mound once this series. What, is coach Lechnir saving him for Wednesday against Point? Is Thursday or Friday til Wednesday not long enough? What about even just coming out of the pen in game one to stop the bleeding? Apparently not. On the bright side Westphal might have pitched himself into the 2 slot in this rotation. He’s had some phenomenal games. Hopefully Rubens is good to go Wednesday and maybe Westphal can match Williams as well. As I said in the preview of this series anything less than a sweep would be disappointing and this series was disappointing to say the least. The struggles in the 9th inning and the porous defense are the main problems for this team right now.
Overall
Record: 20-6 (9-5)
RAPG: 3.04
RSPG: 6.35
Diff: +3.3
It is just so disappointing that a team that scores more that twice what it opponents score per game is settling into third place in the conference. It’s a good news, bad news situation with what happened in the Stevens Point/Superior series. The good news is that Point got inexplicably whomped 12-2 in their series finale by the last place Yellow Jackets, which keeps the Titans just a game back of Point for 2nd and 2 games back of UWW for 1st in the conference. The bad news, if they wouldn’t have blown game one of their own series the Titans would be tied with Point right now and just a game back of UWW with 2 games left against Point and 4 games left against UWW. Being the pessimist that I am I see this as more of a blown opportunity rather than a fortunate break. Obviously this week is of the utmost importance for the Titans. In my opinion going 4-2 this week would be the goal. Anything better than that is just gravy. The problem is Point has only Stout and Platteville left and UWW has 2 games against UWP and a 4 game set against LAX in addition to the series in Oshkosh. Lacrosse might give UWW trouble but Point really has a cakewalk. At the end of the day the Titans’ fate is in their hands. If they play as well as they think they can game in and game out and take care of business this week and they can take home their first solo crown since 2007.
Next Series: Wednesday April 27th @ UWSP double header begins at 1pm, no media.
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