MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee baseball team led 9-6 heading into the final three innings, but an eight-run outburst by Northern Kentucky over the final three innings gave the visiting Norse a 14-10 victory.
 
Milwaukee was led by Carson Hansen on offense, who helped Milwaukee build its middle-inning lead with a grand slam in the third inning. Zach Lane had three hits on the day and drove in a pair, while the Panthers also got RBIs from Sean Tillmon, Q Phillips, and Gabe Roessler.
 
"Our lineup needs to be nine deep if you want to win in this league, you have to be able to repeat and do it over again," noted head coach Shaun Wegner after the game. "We had some guys step up with some big hits, but we have to be able to do it one through nine if we want to do something special here."
 
Milwaukee sent Luke Hansel to the mound to open the series with the Norse, after allowing three runs in the early-going, he settled down and went 4 2/3 innings with eight strikeouts, while leaving with the lead.
 
"Hansel after the first inning really dug in and started pitching a little bit better," Wegner added. "You can tell he was getting tired at the end of his outing, but he competed well in those middle innings."
 
After trailing by three after two innings, Milwaukee got on the board with a Tillmon single to plate Teige Lethert, who reached on a wild pitch to open the inning. Tyler Bickers walked to load the bases before Hansen sent a blast left of the Franklin Field batter's eye to put the Panthers ahead 5-3.
 
Hansel was touched up for two more runs in the fifth, and was lifted for Keagon Kaufmann, who allowed an inherited runner to score before getting a fly ball to end the inning.
 
The Panthers responded immediately in the bottom half of the fifth as Justin Hausser singled to lead off the inning before Hansen doubled to put a pair in scoring position. Lane picked up one RBI with an infield knock, and later stole second as the ball went wide of the bag at second base allowing Hansen to score on the error to give Milwaukee a 7-6 lead.
 
Phillips was up next and tripled to the right centerfield gap to chase Lane home, before Roessler brought Phillips around with a seeing-eye single up the middle as the Panthers led 9-6.
 
"We had some resilience in the middle innings to take a 9-6 lead into the seventh," said Wegner.
 
The Norse drew a walk to lead off the seventh inning, which sparked a five-run rally as NKU regained the lead at 11-9. Northern Kentucky scored two more in the eighth and one in the ninth, taking advantage of five walks, a hit batter, and a wild pitch to extend its lead to 14-9.
 
"We just gave them too many freebies again with 10 walks, two hit batters, and had a few wild pitches and passed balls," Wegner added. "Against a good team like the conference leaders, you can't overcome some of those types of miscues."
 
The Panthers tacked on one in the ninth as Lane hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded, but the Panthers were unable to capitalize leaving two on base.
 
Northern Kentucky had five different players drive in at least two runs, including Brennan Rowe, who had a game-high three RBIs for the Norse. Clay Brock got the start and went the first 4 1/3 innings, allowing eight Milwaukee runs before Jared Teke earned the win as he went 2 2/3 innings without allowing a run.
 
Milwaukee and Northern Kentucky will play a doubleheader on Saturday at Franklin Field with first pitch of the opener taking place at 11:35 a.m. Game two will begin approximately 30 minutes following the conclusion of the opener.