WHITING, Ind. - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team had its postseason run come to an end when it fell to Wright State University Saturday in the Horizon League Tournament Championship at Oil City Stadium.
 
Playing their sixth game in the past four days, the Panthers (39-20) ran out of gas and could not overcome an early deficit against the Raiders (41-15), who earned the Horizon League's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with the 17-4 victory.
 
"The guys really fought all week," Milwaukee head coach Scott Doffek said. "You get in that loser's bracket and it is just tough. And we were a couple of pitchers short with injury already and we just ran out of gas. But, they fought the whole time. I am very proud of them."
 
Senior Ryan McShane led the offense with a 2-for-4 day, scoring a pair of runs and adding a long home run. Senior Sam Koenig (2-for-4) and junior Mitch Ghelfi (2-for-5) also added multi-hit efforts.
 
"A lot of grit, a lot of heart, a lot of guys coming back on short rest," Doffek said. "This was a very good season for us. Not great – anything but a championship is not considered great – but really proud of the way they came together at the end."
 
Milwaukee started chipping away from its early 6-0 hole in the third inning, getting back in the game with three runs. Junior Luke Meeteer doubled in a run and senior Derek Peake followed suit with a two-bagger of his own. Back-to-back singles followed and Ghelfi knocked one back up the middle to make it 6-3.
 
But from there it was all Wright State, extending the cushion to 8-3 in the fifth and putting the contest away on Gabe Snyder's grand slam in the sixth inning.
 
The Raiders had erupted for six runs in the first inning, batting around before the fans could even get settled. In all, they collected seven hits, the biggest being a two-run blast to deep left by Mark Fowler, setting the tone for a tough end to a great week for the Panthers.
 
The loss brings a very successful season to an end with 39 victories, tied for the most in program history with the same total reached by the Panthers in 2001. It also concludes the careers of the following 14 seniors.
 
Fifth-year seniors (7): Gunnar Eastman, Eric King, Sam Koenig, Derek Peake, Mike Porcaro, Mike Schneider, Tell Taylor
Transfers (4): Tyler Hermann, Sam Kohnke, Ryan McShane, Cody Peterson
Fourth-year seniors (2): Sam Hammer, Justin Jaquish
Graduate students (1): Joe Pavlovich

2015 Horizon League All-Tournament Team
P: Dalton Lundeen, Valparaiso
P: EJ Trapino, Wright State
1B: Sam Koenig, Milwaukee
2B: Tell Taylor, Milwaukee
3B: Nick Unes, Milwaukee
SS: Mitch Roman, Wright State
OF: Luke Meeteer, Milwaukee
OF: Tyler Detmer, UIC
OF: Ryan Fucci, Wright State
C: Sean Murphy, Wright State
DH: Mark Fowler, Wright State (Tournament MVP)