WHITING, Ind. - Senior Tell Taylor's home run with two outs in the eighth inning capped a late comeback and helped the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team to a 5-4 victory over Wright State University Saturday afternoon in the Horizon League Tournament at Oil City Stadium.
 
"We have had different people step up each and every game and that is what it is going to take at this point in the tournament," UWM head coach Scott Doffek said. "That's guts. There is no recipe for that. It's tough – you are going to have to grind everything out and we did it. We only gave up four runs to that offense, which is pretty good. We came up with some big hits – Sammy with the big hit to drive in two and Tell with the home run to give us the lead."
 
The Panthers (39-19) trailed the Raiders (40-15) by a score of 4-2 in the seventh inning and were up against a bullpen that had not allowed a run all tournament. Senior Sam Koenig tied the game in the seventh inning with a two-run single and Taylor's third home run of the season forces a one-game rematch for the Horizon League title and spot in the NCAA Tournament at 4 p.m. today.
 
All five runs for UWM were scored after two outs with nobody on base. Gutsy performances marked the whole contest. Senior Joe Pavlovich (8-1) was phenomenal in relief, coming off just two days rest after starting Wednesday. He struck out three of the first six batters he faced and also worked around a two-on, one-out situation in the eighth to preserve the 5-4 lead. In all, he worked 4.0 scoreless frames, allowing a mere two hits while fanning four.
 
"Unbelievable," Doffek said of Pavlovich's performance. "Two days rest after 100-some pitches. Gave us four scoreless, it was just unreal."
 
Taylor broke the 4-4 tie in the eighth inning, sending a full-count pitch up-and-over the scoreboard wall in left for the biggest hit of the day. The team came up with seven hits on the day, but made them count, especially with two outs.
 
Trailing, 4-2, Milwaukee did it with a two-out rally again, and all off of Horizon League Relief Pitcher of the Year Andrew Elliott. An error opened the door and following that, back-to-back walks were drawn by junior Luke Meeteer and senior Derek Peake, setting the stage for Koenig, who laced an 0-1 pitch into right field to tie the contest at 4-4.
 
Milwaukee struggled to put anything together through the middle innings. Wright State attempted to add to its lead, but senior Gunnar Eastman got a big strikeout to get out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth and Pavlovich came back after short rest to record a pair of strikeouts to get out of the sixth inning unscathed.
 
The Panthers got back in the game with a two-out rally in the fourth. After not recording a hit for the first 3.2 innings, junior Mitch Ghelfi tripled down the right field line. He was promptly knocked in on a single to right by senior Mike Porcaro. On the very next pitch, junior Nick Unes missed tying the game by a few feet, settling for a double that chased Porcaro home and trimmed the margin to a run at 3-2.
 
Wright State opened up the scoring early, taking the zero off the scoreboard in the second with a run and adding two more in the third on a home run by Mark Fowler.
 
The rematch has a first pitch scheduled for 4:02 p.m.