DAYTON, Ohio – In the opening game of a three-game Horizon League series, the Milwaukee baseball team fell by a 9-2 score to the Wright State Raiders on Friday at Nischwitz Stadium.
 
The Panthers took an early 2-0 lead, but a pair of two-run home runs in the bottom of the fifth by Wright State ignited the Raider offense as the home team ran away late with the win.
 
Riley Frey got the start for the Panthers and allowed four runs over six innings, with six more strikeouts to add to his league-leading total.
 
"I thought Riley did a really nice job," noted head coach Scott Doffek on his starting pitcher. "He really only made one mistake pitch."
 
The Panther offense equaled the Raiders in hits on the day with eight aside, led by two hits off the bats of both Luke Seidel and Nate DeYoung. Mark Connelly had Milwaukee's biggest hit of the day with a two-run double, as Seidel and Ty Olejnik scored runs in the top of the third.
 
"We came out swinging the bats well," Doffek added. "But we lost our competitiveness once we fell behind. That it itself was more disappointing than the outcome."
 
After Milwaukee went down in order in the top of the first inning, Frey walked the first batter he faced and got the next three batters out to strand the leadoff baserunner at second.

The Panthers got two hits in the top of the second on base knocks by DeYoung and Jack Thelen but were unable to drive in either one-out baserunner. Frey yielded a two-out infield single but picked off the base runner for the third out of the inning in the bottom of the second.
 
With one down in the top of the third Seidel walked followed by an infield single off the bat of Olejnik. Connelly was up next and doubled to right centerfield to chase home the first two Panther runs of the afternoon.
 
Frey relied on his defense in the bottom of the fourth after a leadoff single was erased on a double play to retire the first two batters. The next batter walked, but Frey was able to win a five-pitch battle to strike out the next batter to send the game to the fifth.
 
Wright State returned the favor with a double play in the top of the fifth inning to thwart the leadoff single by Seidel. The Raiders took their first lead of the game in the bottom of the fifth on a pair of two-run home runs to take a 4-2 lead.
 
After a scoreless sixth, the Raiders added on with two more runs in the bottom of the seventh as Milwaukee had Ryan Hoerter get touched up for two runs while retiring one batter. Sam Mathews allowed a single to the only batter he faced before Johnny Kelliher came on and got out of the jam to retire the final two outs of the frame.
 
The Raiders added three more runs in the bottom of the eighth to cap off the scoring before Wright State retired the Panthers in the ninth to seal the 9-2 victory.
 
Milwaukee and Wright State will meet again on Saturday, as the Panthers will look to even the series at one game apiece at 1:00 p.m. (CT) at Nischwitz Stadium.