HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – Joey Spence homered twice to lead Milwaukee's offense to a season-high 16 runs, as the Panthers began Horizon League play with a 16-9 victory over Northern Kentucky.
 
The Panthers had five home runs as a team, including blasts by John Hadley VI, Bradyn Horn, and Grant Ross. Milwaukee had multi-RBI efforts from Ross, Dylan O'Connell, Dominic Kibler, Horn, Spence, and Hadley VI.
 
Gavin Theis struck out six over five innings of work and allowed the first two Norse runs. Camden Kuhnke was effective in locking down the win, pitching 1 2/3 innings with just one hit allowed while striking out three.
 
"It was a very offensive environment today and our guys did a good job of taking advantage of the conditions," said head coach Shaun Wegner. "We were able to find the barrel repeatedly and really punish some hittable pitches today. We used the long ball repeatedly to deliver some big blows and momentum swings." 
 
Milwaukee had a chance to break the game open in the first inning against Northern Kentucky starter Logan Wilson but stranded the bases loaded.
 
The Panthers picked right back up again in the second inning as Christian Holmes reached on a one-out single and scored on the first home run of the game off the bat of Hadley VI. Ross followed with a solo blast to make it 3-0. Tate Schmidt singled and scored on O'Connell's double, and O'Connell later scored on a wild pitch to finish off the five-run frame.
 
NKU chipped back with runs in the second and third innings off Theis, but that was all the right-hander allowed through his five innings of work.
 
"I thought Gavin threw the ball well and was able to limit them from stacking big innings," added Wegner. "If you can keep crooked numbers off the board, it's a good thing when facing gusts of 50 mph out to left field."
 
The offense picked up Theis in the top of the sixth with a seven-run inning. Kibler drove in a pair with a double and came around to score on Horn's home run to left centerfield. Spence launched a solo shot for the second set of back-to-back home runs of the game for Milwaukee.
 
Northern Kentucky continued to claw back, scoring three in the sixth and one more in the seventh to slice the deficit to 12-6.
 
Charlie Marion tacked on an insurance run with a sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth before NKU scored three more in the bottom half to make it a four-run game.
 
The knockout blow came from Spence, who connected on his second home run of the afternoon with a pair of runners on to cap the scoring at 16-9.
 
Kuhnke, who recorded the final two outs in the eighth, mowed down the Norse in order in the ninth to seal the victory.
 
"Kuhnke was able to come in and really slam the door closed in that game and we leave the park 1-0 to begin Horizon League play."
 
Marcus Harrison was 3-for-5 and had three RBIs for the Norse, while Wilson struck out two over the first three innings and allowed the first five runs.
 
Milwaukee and Northern Kentucky will play game two of the series on Saturday afternoon at 12:00 p.m. (CT).