MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – A five-run fifth inning highlighted by a pair of home runs helped propel the Milwaukee baseball team past Central Michigan, 9-6, on Monday afternoon.
Dominic Kibler hit his fifth home run of the year, a grand slam, and
Dylan O'Connell followed with his team-leading seventh round-tripper of the year.
The offense backed the efforts of seven Panther pitchers, including winning pitcher
Cullen Riel, who did not allow an earned run over two innings of work.
Camden Kuhnke locked down his first save of the year, retiring all three batters he faced.
"It's great to pick up the victory on our way out of Michigan," commented head coach
Shaun Wegner. "Our offense was the key today and kept on the throttle while taking advantage of 11 freebies."
Central Michigan struck first with a pair of runs in the second inning off
Aiden Fishnick, who was making his first start of the season.
Milwaukee responded immediately in the third as
Tristan Ellis led off with a walk and moved to second on a base hit by
Grant Ross. Three batters later,
Bradyn Horn doubled to deep centerfield to drive home the pair and even the score.
Riel worked around a two-out walk in the third before the Panther offense broke through.
Peter Visconti II led off with a walk, followed by another walk to
Cade Palkowski. After a pair of strikeouts, Ross walked to fill the bases for Kibler, who launched a grand slam over the right centerfield fence to give Milwaukee a 6-2 lead. O'Connell added another run with a homer to extend the advantage.
"Kibler had another great day at the plate and produced the biggest damage with the grand slam," Wegner added. "The top of our lineup continues to produce, and although the box score may not show it, I really liked the at bats that our bottom half put together today in their opportunities."
The teams traded runs over the next few innings. Central Michigan scored one in the fourth, but Milwaukee answered as
Connor Bozak doubled and later scored on a Ross single. The Chippewas added a solo home run in the fifth to cut the lead to 8-4.
Central Michigan inched closer with another solo home run in the seventh, but O'Connell responded by leading off the eighth with a single and later scoring on a
Joey Spence double. CMU added one more in the bottom of the inning on a pair of hits with a wild pitch.
Kuhnke entered in the ninth with a runner on and struck out the first batter he faced before inducing a comebacker and a flyout to end the game.
"Our pitchers did a good job of limiting the free bases, and that was really the difference," Wegner said. "They worked around a few defensive miscues and kept most scoring innings to one run. Today was a solid foundation-builder for the guys who typically come out of our bullpen."
Ross, Kibler, O'Connell, and Horn each finished with two hits as Milwaukee outhit Central Michigan 11-9. Spencer Verburg led the Chippewas with two hits and a team-high two RBIs.
Liam Stumpf started for CMU and worked three innings before Mitchell Tarnowski took the loss without recording an out.
Milwaukee returns home this weekend to host Northern Kentucky. The series will now begin on Thursday, April 16 at 3:00 p.m. at Franklin Field.
