MILWAUKEE – In yet another closely contested ballgame between Milwaukee and Northern Kentucky, it was the Norse who held on for a 6-5 victory in the series clincher.
 
Sam Bond's pinch-hit two-run double in the top of the eighth broke a 4-4 tie and gave the visiting Norse the lead for good. Milwaukee threatened to tie the score in the bottom of the ninth but managed to plate only one run, falling just short.
 
"You've got two teams that are pretty solid ballclubs fighting for that second seed right now, and this is what you want see as fans, some close baseball games with hard-fought energy," said head coach Shaun Wegner. "We were unfortunate that we were able to come out on top today."
 
The Panthers recorded nine hits on the afternoon, including two apiece from Gabe Roessler, Charlie Marion, and Caden Headlee. Roessler and Tyler Bickers combined to score four of Milwaukee's five runs on the afternoon.
 
Milwaukee took a 1-0 lead in the first when Marion plated a run on a ground ball. Northern Kentucky responded with three runs over the next two innings off Panther starter Matthew Mueller.
 
In the bottom of the third, Headlee drove in Bickers with a knock into centerfield. MKE regained the lead in the fifth as Teige Lethert had a run-scoring single followed by a sacrifice fly from Tate Schmidt.
 
Northern Kentucky tied the score at four with a sacrifice fly in the sixth, then retook the lead in the eight on Bond's clutch two-run double.
 
The first three batters reached in the bottom of the ninth before Milwaukee scored its fifth run on a ground ball double play. Q Phillips came to the plate with the tying run on third and deflected the ball off the pitcher's glove. It caromed to second base, where Phillips was thrown out on a bang-bang play to end the game.
 
"We talked about 'as long as you have an out left, you have a chance,'" added Wegner. "We want to fight to the very last pitch, and I'm proud of our guys … but they earned the win, and we didn't quite deserve it today."
 
Mueller finished with four strikeouts over five innings while allowing four runs. Parker Bleck pitched 1 1/3 hitless, and both Riley Peterson and Keagon Kaufmann did not allow an earned run in their efforts.
 
"Our bullpen this whole weekend was really good," Wegner noted. "With these conditions you want to make them hit it and not give up freebies, if we can continue to stack solid bullpen outings like that, I think our team will be in a really good spot."
 
Milwaukee will play a pair of midweek games at Koch Diamond in St. Paul, Minnesota as the Panthers will meet the St. Thomas Tommies for the first time in program history. The two-game set begins Tuesday at 3:00 p.m.