As the cold has dampened our spring fever, the Milwaukee Panthers are still playing baseball. With weather dipping in the lower 30’s the Panthers still were able to get on the field and play four games this week going 2-2. With Henry Aaron field not being baseball ready to play on, the Panthers had to travel to Kenosha for their home opener on March 26.
Even though the Panthers (4-10) were not on their ordinary home field, they were able to pull together a win 4-1 against Edgewood College (4-11). With the game time temperature being in the low 30’s hits and runs were hard to come by.
“It was really good for our guys to get outside and compete, even though the conditions were pretty tough,” Milwaukee head coach Scott Doffek said. (via uwmpanthers.com)
With conditions being the way they were, Edgewood decided to protect their pitchers arms and threw eight different pitchers in the game. The pitchers on Edgewood were clean through the first five innings only allowing one hit to Milwaukee’s Junior Ryan McShane.
The Eagles got on the board first with two hits and a passed ball taking a 1-0 lead in the second.
The Panthers were able to pull ahead in the game after an errant throw from the Eagles, allowed a run to score in the sixth. Mike Porcaro added a sacrifice fly to put the Panthers on top for good.
Cody Peterson (3-0) was able to get the win working two innings along with two strikeouts.
The Panthers had to reschedule their home games due to weather and traveled down to Chicago for their weekend games.
After a good win against Edgewood in the cold earlier in the week, the success didn’t carry over for the Panthers(4-11)(0-1) in their first game in the Horizon League against the University of Illinois-Chicago(7-12)(3-4).
The Panthers fell 8-2 and committed 9 errors in the loss, which is a new school record. The Panthers stuggled defensively and it cost them to give up five unearned runs in the first three innings. UIC starting pitcher Tomas Michelson went eight strong giving up zero earned runs and just five hits to the Panthers.
The Panthers were able to split the double header on Sunday thanks to an extra inning homerun by Ryan Soldberg. The Panthers had a late comeback to tie it in the ninth and eventually earned the victory after Soldberg’s blast.
Soldberg hit a 2-run 2 out homerun in the 11th inning to lead the Panthers to a victory.
In the night cap UWM fell short 10-4 and struggled to hit with runners in scoring position.
Overall it was a good sign to see the team back on the field. After a couple cancellations, it will be interesting to see if the team can pull a winning streak together if the weather stays playable. Remember, Milwaukee doesn’t have the advantages as other teams in the South because of weather. Most teams have played more games and are able to practice outside on a daily basis. Milwaukee hopes to turn their season around as soon as the weather warms up. Milwaukee also hosts the longest active home winning streak in the NCAA at 16 games.
The Panthers will play Chicago State Tuesday in Chicago. Game time is 3:00 pm.