JACKSON, Miss. – The Milwaukee baseball team rode a strong pitching effort the entire day to a doubleheader sweep of Jackson State Sunday at Braddy Field.
The Panthers (5-1) gave up just two runs in 18 innings against the Tigers (2-5), claiming wins by scores of 3-1 and 2-0 on the afternoon.
The 5-1 start marks the best-ever for a Milwaukee baseball team in program history, topping the 4-2 mark back in 1995.
"It was a fight all day for us in the batter's box, but to throw 16 scoreless innings in tight-game conditions is outstanding," head coach
Scott Doffek said. "We played quality defense in both contests and we did just enough with the bats to come out of here with a series win."
Milwaukee rode the arm of
Mike Edwards (2-0) for much of game two. The sophomore went a career-best 7.0 innings, allowing no runs and just four hits. He walked two and struck out four.
Patrick Tomfohrde pitched the eighth and
Jake Sommers closed it out in the ninth, recording his third save of the season. It was also his second of the day, becoming the first MKE pitcher with two saves on same day since Craig Meier in April of 2009.
The offense came in the third and seventh innings and the pitching did the rest. In the third,
Colin Kreiter plated an RBI with a 2-out single to center. In the seventh it was
Devin Rybacki, adding an insurance run with an RBI-single of his own.
Game one ended with the same 3-1 scoreline it started, as the teams picked up from yesterday's postponed affair.
The Panthers got brilliant pitching throughout, with the four hurlers combining for 14 strikeouts, while allowing just the one run and only six hits, walking two.
It started with
Elijah Goodman Saturday, going the first 2.0 innings, fanning a pair.
Nick Winter made his 2019 debut to open Sunday's action, blitzing through a pair of innings in order, capped by striking out the side on the fourth.
Matt Vanek (2-0) was next, doing the heavy lifting with 4.0 innings on the hill. He scattered five hits without allowing a run, walking two while adding five K's. Sommers worked a 1-2-3 ninth for the save, two via strikeouts.
All of the scoring happened in the initial stages of the contest, with Milwaukee getting on the board right away in the first on a wild pitch. The rest of what turned out to be insurance runs came in the second, with Mitch Buban coming up with a clutch 2-out hit with the bases loaded to chase in two runs and make it 3-0 at the time.
Jackson State got on the board with a home run to lead off the second but that would be all of its offense for the entire game.
The Panthers collected seven hits in the contest, led by a 2-for-3 outing by
Tyler Bordner.
A trip to Phoenix awaits next, with the Panthers set to take on Arizona in three games starting Friday.
