MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The Milwaukee baseball pitching staff struck out 21 batters on Friday, but the Panthers had a hard time getting going offensively, totaling just five runs in a pair of losses to Youngstown State at Franklin Field.
The Panthers ran into one of the Horizon League's top pitchers in game one as they dropped a 2-1 decision. YSU's Collin Floyd scattered five hits in a complete game effort, striking out 12.
"He's in a groove right now," head coach
Scott Doffek said of Floyd. "We had a hard time centering the ball on him at all. He did a great job of changing speed and keeping us off balance. We got on our heels and lost our edge in the box."
Mitchell Buban singled in a run in the sixth, but Floyd struck out the side in the seventh to close it out.
The Penguins got an early run after a leadoff double to open the game and added the solo home run in the fifth for the difference.
Despite taking the loss,
Riley Frey put together another solid outing for Milwaukee, striking out six in the complete game. The 7.0 innings pitched marked his longest of the season.
Milwaukee got on the board first in game two as
Marcus Cline scored on a wild pitch and
Mitchell Buban and
Jack Cavanaugh followed with back-to-back RBI singles for a 3-0 lead in the fourth.
Jack Mahoney was rolling on the hill, as he totaled a career-high nine strikeouts through five shutout innings but then he ran into trouble in the sixth.
Youngstown State rallied for five hits and four runs in the sixth to pull ahead 4-3 and after three more in the seventh, the Penguins' bullpen took care of the rest.
Jack Kraus ripped a leadoff solo shot in the ninth to cut into the lead, but that was all the Panthers could push across, falling 7-4.
"Once we got guys on base, I thought we did a nice job of tacking some runs on," Doffek continued. "The difference of the game is they had some good team at bats. We had the same opportunities but didn't play the game as well as they did."
Buban finished with three hits on the day while Kraus hit the solo homer in game two to lead the offense.
The Panthers and the Penguins will return to Franklin Field for game three of the series which is set for 12:00 pm on Saturday. Live coverage links can be found on
MKEPanthers.com.