DEKALB, Ill. – The Milwaukee baseball team picked up a 4-2 win over the Northern Illinois Huskies thanks to a solid outing from the pitching staff, Wednesday evening from McKenzie Field.
 
The Panthers (15-10) utilized five pitchers and allowed just two runs on six scattered hits from Northern Illinois (7-21). MKE showed some leather Wednesday as well to help the pitching staff out, and keep the Huskie offense at bay.
 
"Pitching and defense wins games," said head coach Scott Doffek. "We had a hard time getting much of anything going with the bats, and their pitchers were equally as good today."
 
Milwaukee held Northern Illinois scoreless through four innings in thanks to a combination of Jared Reklaits and Nick Winter. It wasn't until the bottom of the fifth when Northern stole a run from MKE. With two outs and runners at the corners, NIU called for a double steal, and successfully executed bringing home Dylan Larson. Winter then struck out the next batter to maintain a 2-1 lead, and end the Huskie threat.
 
Errors plagued the Huskies leading to three unearned earns, and one coming right after they cut the lead in half in the fifth.
 
With two outs and Mitchell Buban at second, the Panthers extended its lead back to two runs after a first base miscue, scoring Buban from second on a ground ball to the shortstop.
 
After NIU came back within one run in the bottom of the eighth, Milwaukee added an insurance run in the ninth leading 4-2.
 
In the bottom of the ninth, the Huskies managed a double after two quick outs, but senior Jake Sommers closed the door on any hopes of a comeback when he struck out Malik Peters to end the game.
 
Nick Winter earned the win against the Huskies with a four inning, three hit, four strikeout stat line.
 
Next up, MKE will resume Horizon League play with a three-game series at Oakland. First game is set for Friday, April 5 at 2 p.m. (CT) from Oakland Baseball Field.