The Panthers came into the game winners of nine of their last 10 and looked to capitalize on a top-seeded Wright State team they beat the day prior. Milwaukee outdueled the Raiders due to a dominant showing from pitcher Aric Ehmke, who threw seven shutout innings and a three-run fourth inning, Milwaukee would outduel the Raiders in the second game of the home series.
A Duel on the Mound:
Making his ninth start of the season, Ehmke came into the day having last pitched a three run five inning day against Northern Kentucky. His day on the mound started with a one, two, three inning that saw a pop out, fly out and a punch out on Wright State’s JP Peltier.
Left-hander Griffen Paige made his 11th start of the season for the Raiders. He last pitched against Milwaukee on March 21st, where he posted a three-run (two earned) six-inning outing.
He started off the game with a walk to third baseman Grant Ross, followed by a cinematic double play sequence where Milwaukee outfielder Charlie Marion lined out to Wright State’s Keegan Holmstrom at first and a throw to second would cut down Ross. The double play was followed by a fly out to right field by Dylan O’Connell.
Much would be the same in the next few innings, there were a few hits and walks through the 2nd and 3rd innings, where Ehmke and Paige made quick work of the lineups, sending them down with good fielding work by their defense. Not many strikeouts would be recorded for either pitcher as they generated fairly weak contact on quick counts.
Milwaukee Pounces First
In the Bottom of the fourth inning, the Panthers would open up the scoring with a string of hits with a double down the left field line by Grant Ross, followed by an RBI double to right center, thanks to Marion bringing Ross all the way around to score.
The next batter, Dylan O’Connell, mashed a single to bring in Marion on the first pitch of the at-bat. Three batters later, Tate Schmidt would hit a chopper back to the pitcher, Griffen Paige, who could never get a handle on the ball, forcing an error and allowing O’Connell to score on the play. Milwaukee shortstop Christian Holmes would ground out to second base to end the inning with the score at 4-0.
After another scoreless inning pitched by Milwaukee’s Ehmke and Wright State’s Paige through the fifth, Milwaukee added on to their 3-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth where the Panthers outfielder Bradyn Horn delivered a sac fly to right field that drove O’Connell home, bringing the score to 4-0.
The End of a Spectacular Performance
In the top of the seventh inning with Ehmke’s pitch count getting higher, it was in question whether Ehmke would be able to complete the inning. Milwaukee manager Shaun Wegner agreed as he got his bullpen loose with two different relievers warming up as Ehmke hit the mound.
Ehmke delivered in his final inning as he set down the raiders in order, including a strikeout against Wright State’s Cam Gilkerson to finish off seven scoreless innings and record four strikeouts on the day.
Paige came back out for the seventh inning for the Raiders before running into some trouble as Christian Holmes smacked a single to right field. Wright State manager Alex Sogard pulled him after a six and ⅔ innings outing that included 4 runs (3 earned runs) given up.
Bringing in Cooper Gilkerson, brother of Wright State outfielder Cam Gilkerson, who launched a three run home run in yesterday’s game. Gilkerson went on to finish the game for the Raiders with a scoreless inning and a third.
On the other side of the mound, Lucas Watson recorded two strikeouts and a walk in a scoreless eighth inning, which Continued a dominant performance for the Panthers.
Shocking to everyone in the stadium, after an inning and a third his performance on Friday, Camden Kuhnke was brought out again to finish off the Saturday afternoon performance which featured eight scoreless by the pitching staff. Kuhnke gave up one hit and recorded a strikeout in his scoreless outing closing out the game for the Panthers.
Thanks to Ehmke, Watson and Kuhnke, they would collectively shut out the Raiders across 9 innings, winning the game by a score of four to zero to move the record to 15-24 and continuing their hot streak, winners of ten of their last eleven. The Raiders fall to 18-21, Wright State is still sitting atop the Horizon League standings, but the Panthers are hot on their trail.