MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee baseball team fell behind early and were unable to overcome the deficit, as St. Thomas completed a two-game sweep of the Panthers with an 11-3 win at Koch Diamond.
 
Justin Hausser led the Panthers with a pair of hits and drew one of eight walks. Tristan Ellis added three walks with two stolen bases, while Caden Headlee walked twice and stole three bases in the game.
 
St. Thomas took a lead just three pitches into the bottom of the first with a wind-aided home run off Milwaukee starter Tyler Deleskiewicz. A five-run fourth inning for the Tommies helped propel the home team to the victory.
 
"I thought Deleskiewicz threw the ball well early on, including the first-inning home run that unfortunately got caught up in the wind," said head coach Shaun Wegner. "The disappointing part for me was the leadoff error in the fourth inning and then we unraveled a bit on the mound … good teams find a way to overcome that."
 
Milwaukee was held hitless into the sixth inning, when Hausser led off with an infield single. Tyler Bickers followed with a walk, but the Panthers were unable to score.
 
"Offensively, we again drew a plethora of free passes but couldn't touch home plate enough with our at bats," Wegner said. "St. Thomas played a really clean defensive game in the field and their positioning got us a few times when our hitters got some good swings."
 
St. Thomas added a run in the bottom of the sixth and two more in the seventh to extend its lead to 9-0 before Hausser got the offense going in the eighth.
 
After Hausser's leadoff knock, the senior advanced to third on a passed ball and a wild pitch. Charlie Marion followed with a double to drive in Milwaukee's first run, and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Q Phillips. Thomas Otto added a line-drive single to centerfield to plate the third Milwaukee run.
The Tommies responded with two more runs in the bottom of the eighth and worked around a one-out Bickers single in the top of the ninth to secure the win.
 
Deleskiewicz struck out one batter over his three innings of work, while Parker Bleck allowed just one earned run over two innings of relief, recording one strikeout. Mike Sullivan struck out two in the eighth.
 
"Bleck showed some positive signs today and executed a few different pitches we haven't seen from him lately, which is encouraging," noted Wegner.
 
Jacob Mrosko pitched three hitless to start the game for St. Thomas before Easton Bobb tossed four hitless frames to earn the win. Zak Endres closed it out, not allowing a run over the final 1 1/3 innings.
 
Ben Vujovich was 4-for-5 out of the leadoff spot for the Tommies with two home runs while driving in four runs. Lucas McNellis added two RBIs, going 2-for-2 on the afternoon.
 
"We have played a lot of baseball within a short amount of time, including a few extra-inning games," Wegner concluded. "Tomorrow, we take a short break before our weekend series against Purdue Fort Wayne with the early start times."
 
Milwaukee will open a three-game series against Purdue Fort Wayne beginning at 11:00 a.m. on Friday at Franklin Field.