HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – Jack Kraus hit his first homer of the season to give the Milwaukee baseball team an early lead, but Northern Kentucky rallied to hand the Panthers a 5-3 loss on Friday afternoon.
 
"There were some extremely tough conditions today and overall, I feel like they handled them better on the mound than we did," Head Coach Scott Doffek commented. "Offensively, we got off to a decent start but just didn't compete like we needed to in the box after the fourth inning."
 
Kraus sparked the offense early, taking a 3-0 pitch over the left center wall to put the Panthers on top 2-0 in the second inning.
 
One frame later, Mike Ferri singled in Zach Nogalski, but that was all the runs Milwaukee could push across.
 
"Riley [Frey] kept them to only two runs but fought himself all day," Doffek continued. "It was the first time this season he struggled. We have to come out tomorrow much better on both sides of the ball."
 
Frey was up and down with six walks and five strikeouts through 3.2 innings before Andrew Neu came on in the fourth with the bases loaded to work a groundout and keep NKU at bay.
 
The Norse plated another run in the fifth before scoring a wild pitch in the sixth to tie it 3-3.
 
One batter later, NKU took the lead on an RBI single and in the eighth, Griffin Doersching added an insurance run with a solo home run to make it 5-3.
 
The Panthers finished with just two hits after the fourth inning.
 
Kraus finished the day 1-for-3 with the two-run homer while Mike Ferri went 2-for-4 with an RBI.
 
Milwaukee and Northern Kentucky will meet for a Saturday doubleheader beginning at 11:00 am from Bill Aker Baseball Complex. Live coverage can be found on MKEPanthers.com.