MILWAUKEE – In the team's home-opening doubleheader the Milwaukee baseball team won 10-8 in the opener, before falling to the visiting Wright State Raiders by a 19-7 score in game two.
 
Tyler Bickers led Milwaukee's offense with six of its 17 hits on the day and led the team with five RBIs. Charlie Marion had a two-run home run in each contest, finishing the day with four RBIs. Justin Hausser had an inside-the-park home run in the opener, while Gabe Roessler got the Panther offense kickstarted in game one with a leadoff homer.
 
Gavin Theis had a quality start for Milwaukee in the first game, allowing just two earned runs over six innings of work while striking out a career-best eight batters.
 
Wright State got five hits and a team-leading four RBIs from Boston Smith, while Luke Arnold also drove in four. WSU had five home runs on the day with eight different Raiders having multi-RBI efforts.
 
Warren Hartzell got the win for Wright State in game two as he pitched three hitless innings to close out the contest. Mychal Grogan got the start in the opener and led all Raider arms by tossing four innings on the afternoon.
 
"We came out with some great energy in the first game today against a good pitcher," commented Milwaukee head coach Shaun Wegner after the game. "We stayed on it and even though we dwindled at the end, we were able to shut it down and come away with game one victory."
 
Milwaukee outhit the Raiders in the opener, 14-12 and did not commit an error while the Raiders committed two on one play. After a late rally in the opener to close the gap, Wright State used the energy into game two and outhit the Panthers 13-8, and took advantage of 17 free base runners on hit batters and walks to put up big numbers in game two.
 
"They got a little momentum at the end of game one and into game two, and we warned our team of that," Wegner added. "We wanted to make sure we came out with the right energy because they would be hungry for game two and they were."
 
Game One
Milwaukee staked Theis to an early three-run lead through the first two innings as Roessler led off the bottom of the first with a home run. A play with two errors cost Wright State a pair of unearned runs in the second.
 
Wright State scored a pair on solo home runs in the second, which proved to be all Theis surrendered in his outing. He went the next three innings keeping Wright State at two runs.
 
"Gavin is just a steady person on the mound," said Wegner of his game on starter. "We like him in that Friday starting position … you just know he's not going to beat himself; he's going to take care of his business and make teams earn it."
 
In the bottom half of the third, Hausser took a 2-0 pitch deep to left centerfield that was snagged over the wall, but the impact of the wall brought the ball back into play towards centerfield. Hausser raced his way around the bases for an inside-the-park home run.
 
Marion added a two-run home run to deep right in the third, before Caden Headlee later scored in the inning on a balk as Wright State attempted the 'hidden ball trick'.
 
WSU scored a pair in the top of the eighth, answered immediately in the bottom of the inning with a three-run double off the bat of Bickers.
 
Ahead 10-4 heading to the ninth, Milwaukee was not able to get out of the game cleanly as the Raiders scored four on a pair of two-run home runs. The Panthers got the final out on a fly ball to hang on for the two-run victory.
 
Game Two
The second game of the day saw plenty of offense from both sides as the Panthers jumped out to another early lead as Bickers got the scoring started with a base hit and a bases-loaded walk by Hausser.
 
The Raiders scored the next nine runs, but the Panthers refused to go down quietly and fought back with a pair in the bottom of the third on the second home run of the day from Marion.
 
After Wright State scratched across two more runs on a walk and a sacrifice fly in the top of the fourth, the Panther had their biggest inning of the game with three in the bottom half. Tate Schmidt, Bickers, and Headlee all had run-scoring hits to trim the deficit to 11-7.
 
The Panthers were unable to keep pace later in the game as the Raiders scored eight more times over the final two innings to invoke the 'run rule' and pull away late for the 12-run victory in seven innings.
 
Logan Schulfer took the loss for Milwaukee in game two as five Panther pitchers combined to walk 10 Raiders and allow 13 hits for the offensive outburst by the visitors.
 
"On a day like today where the conditions were very hitter friendly, you're going to let up hits and give up runs here and there," added Wegner. "When you put that many guys on with walks and hit batters, it creates opportunities for them to put up lots of big innings … it was disappointing to see that happen, but ultimately we have to do a better job of making opponents earn it."
 
Up Next
Milwaukee and Wright State will wrap up the final game of the series at 2:00 p.m. at Franklin Field on Saturday. The game will be available on ESPN+ as well as streaming online on the Black & Gold Network and on The Varsity App.