COLUMBIA, S.C. – Milwaukee Baseball took on host South Carolina in game two of its weekend series, with the host Gamecocks coming out on top in a 6-3 victory.
 
After South Carolina jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second inning, the Panthers got runs in the fourth, sixth, and ninth innings. However, Milwaukee was unable to string together successful rallies to get any closer than three runs the rest of the way.
 
Tyler Bickers had an RBI single in the fourth, while Gabe Roessler and Charlie Marion had solo home runs later in the game for Milwaukee's scoring.
 
"Offensively, we had a few guys able to find their first longballs and we mixed in a few extra bases," said Shaun Wegner on the offense. "Ultimately we cut down on the strikeouts but couldn't get enough consistent traffic to really apply pressure to the Gamecock defense."
 
Logan Schulfer struck out seven batters over the first five innings of work for Milwaukee and was saddled with the loss.
 
The Gamecocks got a runner into scoring position in the first inning, but a pair of Schulfer strikeouts stranded the early run. South Carolina got a leadoff walk and loaded the bases with no outs in the second and had successive singles and a sacrifice fly to take a 4-0 advantage.
 
"Logan settled in and started getting quicker innings," added Wegner on Schulfer. "He can be very successful this season if he can focus and value each pitch."
 
Milwaukee's offense got going in the fourth after going down in order the first time through the lineup against South Carolina starter Matthew Becker. Justin Hausser doubled with one down in the inning and came around as Bickers collected a knock into left field for the first Panther run.
 
Schulfer's best inning came in the fourth, when he struck out the side including the last batter looking at a pitch on the outside corner.
 
After South Carolina regained a four-run lead with a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth, Roessler took Becker deep in the sixth on an 0-2 count to slice the lead back down to three.
 
Logan Snow came on in the bottom of the inning and faced the minimum with a double play behind him to end the sixth. Snow allowed one run in the bottom of the seventh as a run crossed the plate on another double play with the Gamecocks taking a 6-2 advantage.
 
After a 1-2-3 eighth pitched by Riley Peterson, Milwaukee came back up in the ninth and Marion drilled his first Panther home run to right centerfield. The Panther were unable to do any further damage as the home team won by three.
 
"That was a really good job by Snow to limit the damage with his inning," added Wegner on his first reliever. "Peterson came in and that's the best we've seen him … he was very intentional with his pitches and locked in."
 
"Tomorrow, we need to come out and execute if we want to try to leave with a different outcome," Wegner concluded.
 
Milwaukee and South Carolina will close out the three-game set on Sunday afternoon with first pitch set for 12:30 p.m. at Founders Park.