NILES, Ohio  – The Milwaukee baseball team took an early lead on Thursday afternoon but a late home run by Youngstown State gave the Penguins a 4-2 victory in Ohio.
 
"It was a really tough one today," head coach Scott Doffek said. "We had multiple opportunities early in the game to really burst it open and we smoked some baseballs but sometimes the baseball gods are not friendly and that was the case today for sure."
 
Riley Frey put together a solid start with seven strikeouts through six innings pitched.
 
The sophomore struck out another to open the seventh but after a single, the next batter took the eighth pitch he saw to center field for a 4-2 advantage.
 
"Riley [Frey] was good today and gave us a great start. He was very gutsy, and I thought the boys played hard," Doffek commented."
 
Milwaukee (11-15, 2-6 Horizon League) fought back with back-to-back singles to open the eighth, but a pair of flyouts and a strikeout ended the threat.
 
Early on, Aaron Chapman drove in the first run of the game as he brought in Ty Olejnik in the first inning for a 1-0 lead.
 
After YSU (11-23, 4-6 Horizon League) tied it 1-1, Nate DeYoung doubled in Chapman to go up 2-1 before the Penguins answered in the bottom half of the sixth and eventually took the lead in the seventh.
 
DeYoung had a pair of hits for MKE on Thursday and also reached on a walk.

Eliot Turnquist was solid in relief, striking out two in 1.2 innings of work.
 
Milwaukee left 10 runners on base in the loss.
 
The Panthers take on Youngstown State in game two of the series tomorrow at 2:00 pm CT. Live coverage links available on MKEPanthers.com.
 
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