April 22, 2004

Box Score

VALPARAISO, Ind. - Zac Rivera drove home the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee got seven innings of one-hit relief en route to a 4-3 non-conference baseball victory over Valparaiso University here Thursday (Apr. 22). Four different UWM relievers held the Valpo offense scoreless after the first inning while the Panther offense won the game with a sacrifice fly in the eighth. With the win, Milwaukee improves to 13-18 whole Valparaiso falls to 9-21.

Milwaukee starer Jeremy Leibfried was making his first start of the season and looked rusty in the early going. The righthander struggled finding the strike zone in the first inning which led to three Crusader runs. Matthew Arensdorff walked with one out and then stole second base. After a walk to Kevin Perri, Kevin Kutansky drove home the first run of the game with an RBI double. Leibfried's control got the best of him as two consecutive wild pitches scored VU's second and third runs of the game.

Valpo took a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the second when Leibfried hit Tyler Lowell to begin the inning. UWM head coach Jerry Augustine then lifted Leibfried in favor of righthander Korey Keller. Keller restored order to the game by retiring the next three batters in the inning and all nine men he faced in three perfect innings of work.

The game remained 3-0 until the Panther offense came alive in the top half of the fifth. Rivera walked with one out and then advanced to second on a two-out balk by VU reliever Nick Rotunno. Robert Michalkiewicz walked and Brooks Graff was hit by a pitch to load the bases with two outs. Sam Jansen delivered a two-run single to bring UWM to within one before Ben Stanczyk tied the game with a run-scoring single.

The two pitching staffs took over from there, as neither team could score over the next three innings. Milwaukee finally broke through in the top of the eighth en route to the eventual game-winning score. Matt Alexander walked to begin the inning before Charlie Reschke was hit by a pitch. Ross McCoy was then intentionally walked to load the bases with no outs. Rivera the played here when he drove home the winning run with an RBI sacrifice fly to left field. The Panthers loaded the bases again with one out but consecutive infield groundouts ended the threat.

UWM sealed the victory in the ninth when Michalkiewicz, the fourth hurler of the game, allowed just one base runner in the ninth before finishing the victory. In addition to Keller's three perfect innings Jed Dolske allowed just one hit in two innings of work while Michalkiewicz (3-3) didn't allow a hit in his two innings of winning relief.

Milwaukee will head straight to Cleveland, Ohio, for a four-game Horizon League series starting Friday (Apr. 23). UWM will face Cleveland State University at 5:30 p.m. at Eastlake Park.