YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Milwaukee baseball team opened league play with a split against Youngstown State winning game one 12-4 and falling 3-5 Saturday afternoon from Eastwood Field.
 
With the split, Milwaukee improves to 5-12 (1-1), while Youngstown State move to 2-14 (1-1) on the season.
 
In game one of the series, Panthers' Austin Schulfer (2-2) picked up his second win of the season scattering six hits with six strike outs while giving up just one run in his seven inning stat line.
 
In addition to strong pitching and keeping the Penguins at bay, the Panther offense pounded out 19 hits including six of those being extra base hits.
 
Milwaukee took an early three run lead after two innings with catcher Tyler Bordner singling to left field scoring Ben Chally for the first run of the game. In the next at-bat, Joe Vyskocil tagged his first homerun on the season for a quick 3-0 lead.
 
Youngstown State cut the lead back to three runs scoring one run on two hits in the bottom of the sixth, but the Panthers answered back in the top half of the seventh to regain their four run lead.
 
Milwaukee worked a quick two outs in the bottom of the eighth, but the Penguins rallied after two scoring three runs after an Andrew Kendrick three-run shot over the left field wall with Milwaukee hanging onto a 6-4 advantage.
 
The Panthers added some big insurance runs in their last at-bats of the game putting up a crooked six runs on six hits. The top of the order began with three straight singles from Devin Rybacki, Trevor Schwecke and Colin Kreiter, and the middle of the order cleaned up with a double from Matt Quartel followed by a Tyler Bordner homerun.
 
"Game one we got a good start out of Austin and we swung the bats very well up and down the line up," said head coach Scott Doffek. "It was a good clean win."
 
Milwaukee had seven hitters with multi-hit performances. Trevor Schwecke led the offense going 4-for-5, while Ben Chally and Tyler Bordner collected a three-hit game as well.
 
The second game was much more of a pitchers dual while both teams had great showings from their starters.
 
Like Schulfer in the first game, Jake Sommers (1-3) had a strong performance in the circle. The junior allowed five hits, two runs and struck out nine in six innings of work, but was tabbed for the loss.
 
Penguins' pitcher Colin Floyd (1-4) put up similar numbers allowing one run on five hits and struck out six in seven innings.
 
"We got an exceptional start from Sommers," said Doffek. He was just outstanding and Floyd did a really nice job as well."
 
Youngstown State got on the board first in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Penguins scored two runs on three hits with a Panther error.
 
Joe Vyskocil and Mitch Buban led off the top of the seventh with back-to-back singles and advanced in scoring position when Jack Thelen laid down the sacrifice bunt. Following the bunt, Zach Nogalski grounded out to second and scored Scaffidi who pinch ran for Vyskocil to put the Panthers on the board trialing 3-1.
 
The Penguins answered right back scoring three runs on two hits in the bottom of the seventh, ending the inning in a 5-1 advantage.
 
Milwaukee cut the lead to two after scoring in the top of the eighth making for an exciting ninth inning. With just one out left to play with in the top of the ninth, the Panthers brought the go-ahead run to the plate, but came up just short ending the game with a strikeout.
 
"We set the stage for ourselves at the end of the game, but unfortunately we weren't able to come up with the big hit," noted Doffek. "That being said, our guys fought hard until the last pitch.
 
Milwaukee and Youngstown State complete the three-game series Sunday beginning at 12 p.m. central.