FRANKLIN, Wis. – The Milwaukee baseball team ran into a pair of strong pitching performances on Saturday afternoon and dropped a doubleheader to Purdue Fort Wayne 5-4 and 7-0.
"To their credit, they did a lot of really good things," head coach
Scott Doffek said. "We're in a rut. We're on our heels and we're making it way to easy on the pitchers. Tomorrow is a new day, an important one for us. We need to figure out a way to find our swagger and get some of these bats going again."
Both Purdue Fort Wayne starters pitched into the eighth inning on Saturday and the Panthers had a hard time getting anything going offensively.
Mitchell Spencer earned the win for PFW in game one, allowing just two earned runs in 7.2 innings pitched.
Purdue Fort Wayne (7-22, 4-7 Horizon League) took advantage of a Panthers' miscue in the second inning, scoring a pair of unearned runs to take the lead 2-1.
The Mastodons got to MKE starter
Riley Frey for more runs in the fourth and fifth before
Luke Seidel doubled in a pair to cut it to 4-3.
After trading runs in the eighth, the Panthers (11-12, 2-4 Horizon League) got one aboard in the ninth, but that was all Milwaukee could do as they fell 5-4.
Frey took the loss as he battled a high pitch count early, finishing with eight strikeouts in six complete.
In game two, PFW's Jacob Myer shouldered the load as he threw 7.1 scoreless innings allowing just five hits and striking out four.
The Panthers had runners in the second, sixth, and seventh innings but each time, PFW worked a double play to keep MKE off the board.
The Mastodons scored a pair in both the first and fifth innings and that was all the visitor's needed in the nightcap.
AJ Blubaugh took the loss, giving up the four earned runs in five innings. He struck out six but walked four on Saturday.
Milwaukee and Purdue Fort Wayne will wrap up the series with a 12:00 pm first pitch tomorrow from Franklin Field. Live coverage links available on
MKEPanthers.com.
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