May 22, 2009

Box Score

LORAIN, Ohio - Senior Brad Lusti threw a complete game and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team overcame an early 5-2 deficit to record a 10-7 victory over Valparaiso University Friday afternoon in the Horizon League Tournament. The Panthers (27-26) used a seven-run uprising against the Crusaders (28-24) in the second inning to take control and then held on from there to advance to play Cleveland State University this afternoon at Pipe Yard Stadium.

"Brad (Lusti) really had to deal with adversity," UWM head coach Scott Doffek said. "We really put him in a couple of tough spots. It was tough conditions out here to play defense and we did not help him out. To his credit, as usual, he just battled and gave us a chance to put up a big inning and we held on from there."

Milwaukee went from a 2-0 advantage in the first to down 5-2 after the top of the second inning, but responded with seven runs on five hits in the bottom of the frame.

"That was hard to do, especially after last night's game," Doffek said. "To score early and then see Valpo put up a five-spot, we are sitting in the dugout going `oh no, here we go again'. But, to our credit, we really grinded out those at bats and put up a big number."

Lusti (5-4) overcame the rough start to eventually fire the complete game and earn U.S. Army Player of the Game honors. He did allow seven runs, but just four were earned, and did not walk a batter in his third complete-game effort of the season. He made big pitches when necessary, stranding 11 Crusader runners on base.

After Valparaiso chipped two runs off the lead to make it 9-7 late, UWM got a big insurance run in the bottom of the seventh inning. Junior Tim Patzman led off with a double and was plated on a single to the left center gap from senior Shawn Wozniak, who was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. That was the first damage the Panthers could do against VU's Alex Berry, who had worked over four scoreless innings before Wozniak's RBI, retiring 12 of 13 at one point.

After Valpo jumped ahead with that five-run outburst, Milwaukee responded in force. It scored seven runs in the bottom of the frame, helped along by two errors in the field. Big hits came from senior Josh Groves, who singled in two with the bases loaded to tie the game at 5-5, and RBI-hits from sophomores Cole Kraft and Doug Dekoning and freshman Paul Hoenecke to take a 9-5 advantage at the time.

Milwaukee collected 12 hits in the game, led by multi-hit outings from five players. Wozniak finished 2-for-4 with three runs batted in, junior Dan Buchholz had two hits and scored twice, and Patzman, Kraft and Hoenecke were all 2-for-4. Dekoning extended his career-best hitting streak to 14 games.

No rest for the Panthers, as they will battle Cleveland State next, with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m. CST.