MILWAUKEE – The rubber match of this weekend's baseball series between Milwaukee and Wright State went to the visiting Raiders by a 12-5 score on Saturday afternoon.
 
Charlie Marion and Thomas Otto drove in two runs apiece including a solo home run from Otto. Keagon Kaufmann led Milwaukee with a season-high 4 1/3 innings, allowing just one earned run over the second half of the game.
 
The Panthers were outhit by just one at 12-11 with six of the 11 Milwaukee hits coming at the top of the order as Gabe Roessler, Tate Schmidt, Tyler Bickers, and Marion continue their recent success.
 
"We've been very consistent at the top of the order," said Milwaukee head coach Shaun Wegner. "We've got to find a way to get the middle and bottom of our order rolling to make it harder against opposing pitchers."
 
In addition to their 12 hits, Wright State's offense was aided by five walks from Milwaukee pitching and a trio of MKE errors with most of the damage coming in the middle innings.
 
"The game got away from us as we got into the middle innings," commented Wegner. "We need to clean up our defense and play a better brand of baseball. When you start beating yourselves it makes it more difficult to get favorable results."
 
Milwaukee got on the board in the bottom of the first off Wright State starter Jarrett Heilman as Marion had a sacrifice fly to bring home Roessler, who had singled to lead off the inning.
 
Wright State scored one in the second to tie the score before adding another nine unanswered runs over the next three innings to take a 10-1 advantage. Nine of 10 Milwaukee batters were retired over the span.
 
Otto led off the fifth with a blast over the left field fence and Milwaukee scored an unearned run off the bat of Tyler Bickers to drive home Tate Schmidt who had reached on an infield single.
 
Justin Hausser had a one-out ground-rule double in the sixth and came around to score on a knock by Otto to make the score 11-4. Both teams exchanged solo runs in the seventh with Marion collecting another RBI in the game, bringing home Schmidt after his one-out walk.
 
Kaufmann worked around one-out baserunners in both the eighth and ninth innings as he hung up back-to-back zeroes to finish his outing.
 
"Keagon was big for us twice this week," Wegner added. "He puts out the fire when you need it, and soaks up some innings, and if he keeps doing that, he's going to hear his name more and more."
 
Aric Ehmke took the loss after allowing the first three Wright State runs, while Mason Weckler pitched the next 1 2/3 innings and struck out a pair. Kaufmann also had two strikeouts and did not walk a batter during his outing.
 
Heilman earned the win for Wright State with seven strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings, while the Raider bullpen allowed just one run over the final 3 1/3. Wright State's offense was led by Hunter Warren, who was 3-for-5 with three RBIs, while Braylen Blomquist also drove in three with a 2-for-5 effort at the plate.
 
Milwaukee will be back home on Wednesday afternoon for a 3:00 p.m. start against the River Falls Falcons at Franklin Field. The game will precede a seven-game road trip beginning at Northern Kentucky next weekend.