April 12, 2014

Box Score

DAYTON, Ohio - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team made a valiant comeback attempt, but a three-run home run by Wright State University in the seventh inning was too much to overcome in falling, 11-6, Saturday afternoon at Nischwitz Stadium.

The Panthers (10-14, 4-4 Horizon League) fell behind, 8-0, but responded with six unanswered runs against the Raiders (17-16, 11-2 Horizon League) to make it a new game and claw back within two runs at 8-6 after Milwaukee had batted in the top of the seventh inning.

But, that was where the comeback bid ended, as Jack Murphy hit a two-out, three-run home run in the bottom of the inning that provided the rest of the scoring in the contest.

"Wright state is a good team and you better play the game with good fundamentals and we didn't," UWM head coach Scott Doffek said. "I loved the fight and energy of the guys, but we did not play sound baseball. When you play that way, your results are going to be inconsistent and that is where we are at as a team. We need to improve in that regard and respect the process."

Sophomore Mitch Ghelfi continued his recent hot streak with a 3-for-4 effort to lead the offense. He was the only player with more than one hit, as WSU outhit the Panthers, 12-8, on the day.

The Panthers trailed from the start, with Wright State getting to junior starting pitcher Cody Peterson (3-1) for at least one run in each of the first four innings in jumping out to an 8-0 lead.

UWM rallied with five runs in the fifth inning, starting with a long home run off the bat of junior Tyler Hermann.

The rest of the rally came with two outs, helped along by a pair of WSU errors and a run-scoring hit by sophomore Nick Unes.

Milwaukee really had a chance to get to even in the seventh. Junior Mike Porcaro doubled with one out and moved to third on a base hit by Ghelfi. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases and forced in a run, putting the go-ahead run on the base paths. But, Taylor Braun came through coming on in relief, striking out consecutive batters to end the threat.

These two teams finish out the series with a final game Sunday, set for a first pitch of 12 p.m. CST.