DAYTON, Ohio – Joey Spence hit the game-winning, walk-off two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Milwaukee baseball team clinched the 2026 Horizon League Baseball Championship on Saturday afternoon.
The championship is Milwaukee's first since the 2010 season, and fifth overall conference title, while head coach
Shaun Wegner earns his first Horizon League Championship in his third season at the helm. With the title, the Panthers clinched the Horizon League's automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship.
"It's been a long time coming. It's been 16 years since we've been able to go to the NCAA regionals," said Wegner. "What a special group of guys here that were resilient throughout the entire year and had some really good performances today. We get to play another week of baseball, which is what we always wanted to do."
In addition to the game-winning hit on Saturday, Spence had two hits on the game and finished the championship with four hits including two home runs and seven RBIs, earning Horizon League Championship Most Valuable Player.
Gavin Theis threw a season-high eight innings and allowed one unearned run while striking out six Raiders. Theis matched his season-high with 110 pitches, scattering five hits and walking two along the way.
Theis earned All-Tournament Team recognition along with
Grant Ross,
Charlie Marion, and
Dylan O'Connell. Ross had six hits and scored five runs out of the leadoff spot for Milwaukee, while Marion recorded four hits including a pair of doubles and a home run with four RBIs. O'Connell had three hits on the weekend and had a key two-run double in Saturday's clincher.
"This is a team game and throughout the tournament, and even today, you saw different guys step up at different moments," Wegner said. "When you want to play championship-level baseball your best players have to show up, and today we had that happen with quite a few of them. There are guys that aren't necessarily happy with their performance, but that's why we're a team and we're here to pick each other up."
Wright State broke through first with a run in the second as a leadoff double by JP Peltier ignited the Raider rally. An error allowed Patrick Fultz to reach first while Peltier advanced to third. Zac Butler then lifted a ball to centerfield, allowing Peltier to score the game's first run.
Milwaukee got a one-out rally started as Spence singled to left and advanced to third on a Ross double into the left field corner. Two batters later, O'Connell sent a ball into the corner as the Panthers took their first lead of the game at 2-1.
Bradyn Horn led off the sixth with a single and was sacrificed to second. Two batters later,
Christian Holmes connected on a base hit up the middle, allowing Horn to score and extending Milwaukee's advantage to 3-1.
Theis continued to cruise and threw a 1-2-3 seventh and worked around a one-out single in the eighth.
"You can't say enough about Gavin," Wegner noted. "The last two weeks he hasn't felt great and hasn't had great performances, and he just said 'I'm going to give you everything I got.' What a special performance he gave us."
In the top of the ninth, Wright State loaded the bases before Hunter Warren was hit by a pitch to force home a run. Cam Gilkerson, who came on mid-game as a replacement, followed with a two-run single to give the Raiders a 4-3 lead.
"We were in a place where we were three outs from victory and you start going to the 'what is possible'," said Wegner. "It's just about being resilient and not giving in, and that's what this team has done really well all year. We fought the last pitch."
The bottom half of the inning saw Milwaukee face Wright State's Malachi Paplanus. Holmes walked on five pitches, and after taking the first two pitches, Spence deposited the ball over the right field fence over Gilkerson to clinch the title.
Milwaukee will await its postseason fate, which will be announced by the NCAA on Monday morning at 11:00 a.m. (CT). The selection show will air on ESPN2.
