EVANSVILLE, Ind. – It was a pitching-dominated day as Evansville snuck out a 2-1 win over Milwaukee on Saturday afternoon, evening the weekend series at one game apiece.
Aric Ehmke struck out eight Purple Aces and surrendered just a first-inning home run in his third outing of the season.
Tyler Andrews and
Sotaro Ishida pitched the final 2 1/3 innings for Milwaukee, with Ishida striking out one.
The trio of Milwaukee arms was countered by a pair of Evansville pitchers. Starter Max Hansmann earned the win, allowing just one run over six innings of work with seven strikeouts. Tanner Graham earned his second save of the year, tossing the final three scoreless innings.
"That was a far more fundamental baseball game, and it really turned into a pitchers' duel," said head coach
Shaun Wegner. "They struck right away with the two-run long ball from Charlie Longmeier, and it ultimately was the deciding factor."
"Ehmke kept us at the 2-0 score throughout, and I thought he really gave us an opportunity to try and get back into that game," added Wegner. "Andrews only faced one batter, but did the job we asked him to do, and Sotaro threw two pretty clean innings for us."
John Hadley VI accounted for the lone Milwaukee run, blasting his second home run of the season in the top of the fourth.
Joey Spence and
Tate Schmidt each had two hits for the Panthers, who finished the game with six total hits.
"Offensively, Hadley had the big swing on an 0-2 count and was able to get us on the board, but we couldn't find a way to get anything else across," Wegner said. "Credit to Hansmann and Graham for keeping the offense off balance and not giving away free bases."
Milwaukee had chances late in the game against Graham, but were unable to capitalize, leaving four runners on base over the final three innings.
"We missed a few key opportunities to advance a runner and create pressure with runners in scoring position, but we didn't get it done," Wegner concluded. "Tomorrow we still have a chance to win the series, so I'm eager to see how we can respond."
Milwaukee and Evansville will play the rubber match of the series at 1:00 p.m. at Braun Stadium in Southern Indiana.
