ROCHESTER, Mich. – The Milwaukee baseball team set a new Horizon League record with seven home runs in game one of a doubleheader with the Oakland Golden Grizzlies at the Oakland Baseball Field Saturday afternoon. The team scored 15 runs on 16 hits, winning by a margin of 15-1, then came up short in the second game falling 12-5 to split the day.
The Panthers (16-11, 5-5) put together a complete game one versus the Grizzlies (6-20, 5-6) with solid pitching, defense and hitting. MKE raked seven home runs and tallied 15 runs on 16 hits, while
Matt Vanek (4-1) pitched six solid innings for the win allowing just one run on four hits. Milwaukee ended the day, however, with a split losing the second game by a score of 12-5.
"Game one, we were exceptional on both sides of the ball," said head coach
Scott Doffek. "Matt (Vanek) did a great job of dictating early on and made some big pitches in the middle of the game, and obviously, hitting seven home runs is darn good."
In the first game, Milwaukee platted runs in all but two innings, and put up two four-run innings solidifying a 15-1 win.
The Panthers jumped out to a four-run first inning thanks to two Milwaukee hits and an Oakland error. After a
Trevor Schwecke single through the right side scoring
Devin Rybacki, MKE hit its first of seven home runs from the bat of
Colin Kreiter. Kreiter's three-run shot was his third of the season.
After single runs coming in for the next three innings to take a commanding 7-0 lead after four innings of play, the Panthers continued to rake the ball and put up another crooked number in the fifth with four runs.
Oakland Scanlan and
Jack Thelen hit back-to-back home runs doing most of the damage in the fifth, while
Matt Quartel and
Devin Rybacki followed suit in the seventh with a pair of back-to-back solo home runs in the seventh for a 13-1 lead. Milwaukee tacked two runs in the eighth to complete the scoring barrage of 15 runs.
MKE's
Matt Vanek scattered four hits through six innings while allowing just one run with two strikeouts and improve his record to 4-1 on the season.
In game two, once again the Panthers took an early lead in the first when
Trevor Schwecke singled to left center, scoring Quartel who singled and stole second earlier in the inning.
Oakland answered right back this time scoring three runs on three hits in the bottom half of the frame.
The Panthers manufactured two runs to tie it at three in the third when
Mitchell Buban scored on a wild pitch and
Joe Vyskocil knocked in Schwecke with a single to left field.
In the bottom of the third, the game got away from the Panthers, however, when the Golden Grizzlies rallied and scored nine runs on four hits and a Panther error to take a 12-3 lead.
"Game two started out well and then we lost focus on the mound and on defense in the third," said Doffek. "You can't give up a nine spot and expect to win."
Milwaukee tallied single runs in the sixth and seventh innings to get as close as 5-12, but it wasn't enough to overcome the deficit given in the third.
An important final game between the two teams will now begin at 10 a.m. (CT) – an hour earlier than its regular scheduled 11 a.m. (CT) time due to the possibility of rain.
