MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee baseball team scored in each of the first six innings in cruising to a 17-1 victory over Chicago State Tuesday afternoon at Henry Aaron Field.
 
The Panthers (20-27) scored five times in the first inning against the Cougars (11-35) and never looked back, collecting 20 hits while limiting its opponent to just five.
 
"We got the bats going and it was good to jump out early," Milwaukee head coach Scott Doffek said. "We got everyone in the game. We knew that was going to be a piecemeal bullpen day for the pitchers and I think everyone came in and did a nice job."
 
Ian Ross had a career-day, finishing with UWM-bests of four hits and three runs batted in, while also scoring a pair of runs.
 
Milwaukee plated five runs in the first inning on four hits and the offensive barrage never stopped. It added four in the third inning and made it 11-0 after three on Daulton Varsho's long home run over the scoreboard in right field.
 
"The end of the year is when we need to be firing on all cylinders," Doffek said. "We got timely hits early in the game and the momentum was on our side early and the pitchers did a nice job of holding it."
 
Varsho also walked three times and scored four runs while Chris Kelly went 3-for-4, scoring three runs and knocking in a pair.
 
Every starter had at least one hit. Trevor Schwecke (2-for-5/2 R/RBI), Joe Vyskocil (2-for-2), and Matt Quartel (2-for-4/2 RBI) each had multi-hit outings.
 
Seven different pitchers saw action for UWM, with George Swedie (1-0) picking up the victory after leaving with a 5-0 lead after pitching a 1-2-3 first inning.
 
The group collectively allowed just five hits, gave up one unearned run and combined to strike out eight on the day.
 
John Moynihan struck out four batters in his 2.0 innings. Matt Vanek (1.0 IP/2K), Jared Reklaitis (1.0 IP/K), Jake Sommers and Brandon Parr all pitched an inning and allowed just one unearned run combined. Blake Reed also threw two shutout frames.
 
John Boidanis and Ross had RBI-singles in the first, with Mike Ferri drawing a bases-loaded walk for an RBI, Quartel plating one on a groundout and another scoring on a wild pitch.
 
Kelly drove in two with a double in the third and Ross and Ferri had RBI-singles in the fifth. Schwecke's triple drove in a run in the sixth, the same frame that saw Vyskocil knock in a run with a hard single down the right field line. Dylan Detert closed out the scoring with a pinch-hit RBI later in the sixth.
 
The win is the third in a row for the Panthers, who have now won seven of their past nine games heading into a key Horizon League weekend.
 
Up next is a pair of weekend doubleheaders, welcoming Wright State first on Friday, with game one starting at 12 noon.