MURRAY, Ky. – On Saturday, the Milwaukee baseball team looked to win its three-game set against the Murray State Racers and had the game tied heading into the bottom of the seventh. The Racers scored five in the final two innings to runaway late with the 8-3 win at Reagan Field.
 
 "This was a hard-fought series," said head coach Scott Doffek post game. "We had a 3-3 game in the seventh and the zone got away from us. We were down a few leveraged arms this weekend and it ended up catching up with us."
 
Milwaukee ended the game with just four hits on the day, led by Aaron Chapman and Nate DeYoung with a double apiece. Marcus Cline and Luke Seidel each had singles, with DeYoung and Cline recording RBIs for the Panthers.
 
"I'm proud of our fight today but that kind of effort in the box isn't doing to get it done against a quality opponent," Doffek added. "We have a few guys scuffling a little that we expect to be good hitters and I'm very confident they will bust loose soon."
 
Eliot Turnquist struck out four batters over his 3 1/3 innings in his third start of the year. Six other pitchers took the bump for Milwaukee, including Nick Gilhaus who struck out three over his 2 1/3 innings.
 
Milwaukee jumped on the board first after a scoreless first inning, Chapman led off the second with a double down the left field line followed by a run-scoring double off the bat of DeYoung.
 
Given the lead Turnquist worked through traffic in the bottom of the second and stranded a pair on base to send the game to the third.
 
The Panthers got two runners on in the top of the third but were unable to connect to extend its lead. Murray State got the tying run in the bottom of the third after a leadoff double and a run-scoring single. The Racers scored single runs in the fourth and fifth innings to take a 3-1 lead into the sixth.
 
After a scoreless sixth, Milwaukee came up to bat in the top of the seventh and Andrew Chapman reached on a one-out walk. Seidel pinch hit and singled to put two runners on, Cline singled to bring [Andrew] Chapman home, while well-executed double steal allowed Seidel to score the game-tying run.
 
With the score even at three, the Panthers were not able to hang onto the lead as the Racers scored a run on a hit and a Milwaukee error before the Racers stranded a pair on base. Murray State added four runs in the bottom of the eighth before closing out the 8-3 win in the top of the ninth.
 
Milwaukee will wrap-up the opening stretch of non-conference games to open the season on Tuesday when the team travels to UIC for a 4 p.m. start. Horizon League play will begin next weekend with a three-game set at Northern Kentucky.