April 17, 2010

Box Score: Game 1
Box Score: Game 2

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team scored 11 runs in the eighth inning to turn a late deficit into a 14-4 victory over Butler University Saturday at Bulldog Park. The Panthers (13-15, 5-3 Horizon) trailed the Bulldogs (10-21, 2-9 Horizon), 4-2, after seven innings and looked like they might get swept after dropping game one, 11-2. However, the big two-out rally saw UWM send 17 total batters to the plate, scoring 11 runs on seven hits and two errors.

The 11-run inning was the most since the Panthers also plated 11 against Wright State in the Horizon League Tournament May 22, 2008.

"Their lefty (Joe Ochs) did a really good job in game two of pounding the bottom half of the strike zone with all three of his pitches," UWM head coach Scott Doffek said. "We just could not get anything going. Finally, we had a couple of quality at bats in a row, chased him from the game and the floodgates kind of opened. We have been waiting all year to do that, so that was really encouraging to see."

Ochs actually retired 16 consecutive batters from the middle of the second inning until a walk with two outs in the seventh. And the eighth started innocently enough. With one out, junior Doug Dekoning singled and stole second before an infield ground out left him there. At that point, the two-out rally began.

Senior Dan Buchholz doubled in the first run and senior Tim Patzman chased him home with a single to right to tie the game. After an intentional walk, Patzman scored on an error. Senior Nino Guerrero followed with an RBI-single to make it 6-4. After another RBI-single from junior Jim Lundstrom and a walk, another Bulldog error plated two more runs. Buchholz followed with his second hit of the inning, a single up the middle that drove in two. Patzman closed out the scoring with another run-scoring single.

Buchholz finished 3-for-5 with four RBI's, while Patzman (2 hits/3 RBI) and Lundstrom (2 hits/2 runs/2 RBI) all had multi-hit games. Guerrero extended his career-best hitting streak to 10 games, while Kevin Crane had three hits and drove in all four Butler runs.

The offensive barrage made a winner out of sophomore Kyle Schmidt (2-2), who pitched seven-complete in allowing four runs - three earned - while walking five and striking out one.

"Kyle started off pretty good and then got himself into some trouble in the middle part of the game," Doffek said. "But, we didn't implode and we kept the game close. We had two critical two-out hits, they made a miscue, and before you know it, it was 11 runs."

Game one got out of hand late. UWM trailed, 5-2, heading into the bottom of the eighth before the Bulldogs put up six of their own to win going away, 11-2.

The Milwaukee offense banged out more hits (10-to-9), but after taking a 1-0 lead in the second, could not dent the scoreboard again until the top of the eighth when senior Ben Long's sacrifice fly made it 5-2 at the time.

Junior Chad Pierce (3-3) took the loss, working 7.0 innings in allowing three earned runs. He walked a pair and struck out five. Mike Hernandez (2-2) pitched well for Butler, working into the ninth in allowing just one earned run.

Junior Sam Sivilotti (2-for-2), senior Shaun Wegner (2-for-3) and Dekoning (2-for-4) all had multi-hit games for the Panthers. Buchholz did see his career-best hitting streak come to an end at 12 games in the opener. Michael Letzter was 2-for-3 with three RBI for BU, including a key two-out, two-RBI double that pushed the deficit from 3-1 to 5-1 in the sixth inning.

These two teams wrap up the weekend series with the final game tomorrow, with a first pitch slated for 11 a.m. CST.