BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Three home runs by the Hilltoppers and seven shutout innings by Western Kentucky's Jack Bennett held the Milwaukee baseball team in check as the Panthers fell, 5-0, on Friday afternoon.
 
Bennett needed just 85 pitches and struck out eight Panthers, allowing four hits and a walk to secure his first win of the season. Ethan Lizama, Camden Ross, and Brady Browning all went deep against Milwaukee starter Luke Hansel, who threw six innings and struck out three Toppers along the way.

The Panthers had traffic on the base paths with five hits and a walk, but hit into hard luck and were unable to score. "Today we lined out a couple of times when we had runners in scoring position. If those fall a foot either way I think our guys feel a bit better." said head coach Shaun Wegner after the game. "We have to find ways to not let the negative results impact our process and intent moving forward."
 
After three scoreless innings the Panthers threatened in the top of the fourth on a Justin Hausser single and a Carson Hansen walk. In the bottom half of the fourth, Milwaukee turned a double play in front of a solo home run by Browning, limiting WKU to just one run in the inning.
 
Western Kentucky scored another three runs in the bottom of the fifth on a two-run home run, and on the next pitch added their third home run of the day to make it 4-0. "Hansel battled in his six innings and they popped three balls out when they got into leverage counts," added Wegner.
 
The Panthers were held scoreless in the top of the seventh, despite putting two runners on base. Camden Kuhnke came on for the bottom of the seventh and pitched a hitless frame.
 
The Hilltoppers added an insurance run in the bottom of the inning to extend their lead to five.
 
"Kuhnke did a really good job coming in and getting us back into the dugout with his two innings," Wegner noted. "That's encouraging as we keep getting deeper into our schedule and finding more opportunities for guys."

Milwaukee was led by Hansen, who doubled and walked while Zach Lane was 2-for-4 with a double. Hausser and Tyler Bickers had singles.
 
Milwaukee and Western Kentucky will meet for a scheduled doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1:00 p.m. The first game will be a seven-inning contest, before a nine-inning second game.