MILWAUKEE - Senior Tell Taylor singled in the game-winning run with two outs in the ninth inning to send the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team to a thrilling 6-5 victory over Youngstown State University Saturday afternoon at Henry Aaron Field.
 
The Panthers (21-12, 8-8 Horizon League) led the Penguins (10-23, 4-13 Horizon League) comfortably until a late rally tied the game in the eighth. Taylor played the hero role, sending an 0-1 pitch to left field to plate the winning run.
 
That made a winner out of senior Cody Peterson (2-1), who came on in the YSU eighth and ended up pitching 1.1 scoreless innings.
 
The late comeback spoiled a great start from senior Joe Pavlovich, who got the no-decision despite giving up just three hits and one run in 7.0 innings of work, walking one and striking out seven batters.
 
"It starts with Pav – just a great start," UWM head coach Scott Doffek said. "He threw the ball well. We took that 5-1 lead into the eighth and the strike zone got away from us a little bit and we gave up a couple of big hits. To their credit, they didn't give up and quit playing, they tied that thing up. And then to our credit, we didn't feel sorry for ourselves. Tell had lined out two or three times in the game, so it was a matter of staying focused and staying with it and he finally got rewarded when it really counted."
 
The Panthers had slowly built a 5-1 advantage on clutch two-out hits.
 
"Two-out hits are almost always the difference in ballgames," Doffek said. "You are not manufacturing the run."
 
Senior Mike Porcaro came up with the first one on the day, lacing a two-out double to left that gave UWM a 2-0 lead in the third.
 
After Youngstown State responded with a run in the fourth, UWM extended its cushion back to two on a long home run off the bat of senior Sam Koenig in the fifth, tying for the Horizon League lead with his eighth of the season.
 
Milwaukee tacked on with what looked to be a pair of insurance runs in the seventh. Senior Derek Peake collected an RBI-single with one out and classmate Tyler Hermann laced a two-strike pitch into left with two down to extend the advantage to 5-1 at the time.
 
YSU rallied in the eighth, helped along by a trio of walks and Lorenzo Arcuri's clutch pinch-hit triple with two outs that tied the game at 5-5.
 
In the bottom of the ninth, Koenig walked with one out, went to second when Hermann was hit by a pitch and raced home on Taylor's game-winner.
 
Hermann was the only player with more than one hit. He want 2-for-4, with every other starter recording exactly one hit on the day. Larivee paced the visitors with two hits, two runs scored and two RBI.
 
The final game in the series will get started one hour earlier tomorrow. With rain headed into the Milwaukee area in the afternoon, the finale will get underway at 11 a.m. instead of the original first-pitch time of noon.