April 15, 2009

Box Score

MILWAUKEE - Seven pitchers combined to tie a school record with 15 strikeouts as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team downed Wisconsin Lutheran College by a score of 16-2 Wednesday night at Henry Aaron Field. The Panthers (13-18) improved to 8-0 all-time against the Warriors (5-19), taking an early lead and cruising from there to move to 8-1 at home this season. UWM has now won eight of its last 10 games overall.

The pitching staff was impressive all game and took a no-hitter into the sixth inning. On the night, Milwaukee allowed just three hits and no earned runs to go with those 15 K's.

"The pitching staff really did a good job," UWM head coach Scott Doffek said. "We threw strikes and we forced them to put good swings on it. It was a great opportunity for us to get in some of the guys that do not get to play very often. And, we have a stable of pitchers that needed innings, so it was good to give those guys that opportunity."

Junior Gabe Marshall (1-0) earned the victory, starting things with two flawless innings, striking out three. Freshman Jake Long followed with two innings of work, allowing no hits and fanning two. Next up was junior Zach Hoch, who also struck out two batters in just one inning of work.

Freshman Kaleb Engelke struck out one in his inning, followed by an impressive display by junior Nate Caldwell and senior Tim Hoy, who both struck out the side. Junior Jeff Gordon struck out one in the ninth to tie the school record of 15 in a game, done two other times in school history.

"Dave [WLC head coach Dave Reinemann] is a good friend of mine and he's just starting out there," Doffek said. "He is going to do a really good job. I think their energy was great today and it was a really good opportunity for them. But, like I said, it was really a great opportunity for us as well."

Not to be outdone, the offense pounded out 19 hits, as every batter that had at least one official plate appearance recorded at least one hit.

"We really did a good job of putting the ball in play and repeating quality at bats," Doffek said. "And that is how you get the big numbers."

Freshman Paul Hoenecke led the way, going 4-for-5 with four runs driven in and also scored three times.

Four other Panthers also had multi-hit nights: Senior Josh Groves (2-for-2), junior Dan Buchholz (2-for-5), junior Tim Patzman (2-for-2) and freshman Nick Lingvay (2-for-5). Sophomore Doug Dekoning subbed in late and still drove in three runs with a sac fly and a double. He also made a brilliant running catch at the outfield wall in the sixth that kept the no-hitter going at the time.

Kyle Edlhuber had two of the Warriors three hits on the night and also drove in a run. John Bodnar struck out two in his inning of work.

Next up for UWM is a weekend league series at Youngstown State, starting with a 2 p.m. CST game Friday.