MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee baseball team scored six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to complete a comeback from a late deficit in claiming a 10-6 victory over Wright State Friday afternoon at Henry Aaron Field.
The Panthers (21-13, 9-6 Horizon League) trailed the Raiders (26-12, 10-6 Horizon League) by a score of 6-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning after leading on two occasions early in the day. A pair of runs in the seventh closed the gap before batting around in the decisive eighth inning to claim the win.
"I felt we had pretty good at bats throughout the game against a pretty good pitcher," head coach
Scott Doffek said. "We got to the bullpen and made them work. Made them beat us in the zone and took advantage."
That made a winner out of
Alex McIntosh (5-0), who came on in relief in the fifth inning. He ended up working 3.2 innings, allowing one unearned run on two hits, walking one and striking out four.
"If you look at the runs, we gave them four with free passes and extra outs and they gave us a few back too." Doffek said. "To me, that game was (Alex) McIntosh. Coming in during a tough spot and they certainly had all of the momentum. He threw the ball really well, kept it close and we were fortunate to do some damage at the end."
Milwaukee quickly loaded the bases in the eighth inning on a hit batter and pair of walks.
Joe Vyskocil followed by lacing the first pitch he saw into left field to make it a new game at 6-6. Another walk re-loaded the bases, eventually setting the stage for
Oakland Scanlan with two outs.
Scanlan fell behind 1-2 before coaxing yet another base on balls, bringing the go-ahead run into score. Not done there,
Matt Quartel also drew a bases-loaded walk before
Devin Rybacki broke it open with a two-run single to left field to make it 10-6.
Milwaukee collected 11 hits on the afternoon, led by a 3-for-3 performance from
Tyler Bordner, who also walked to reach base safely all four times. Vyskocil hit a home run in the seventh, finishing with two hits, two runs scored and three RBI.
Rybacki was 2-for-4 with two runs batted in and two scored, while
Trevor Schwecke finished 2-for-3, giving MKE the early 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI-single to right.
Jake Sommers finished the ninth inning, striking out a pair.
The Panthers led 1-0 and 2-1 early, falling behind in the fourth inning for the first time. The deficit grew to 5-2 on a two-run shot by Seth Gray in the fifth before eventually reaching 6-2 in the top of the seventh.
Vyskocil's long home run in the bottom of the seventh was followed by a sac fly from
Jack Thelen, setting the stage for the late comeback.
These two teams wrap up the series with a doubleheader Saturday, set for a first pitch in game one of 11 a.m.
