Panthers Stun Penguins in Comeback, 7-6

After a slow start offensively, the Milwaukee Panthers baseball team (15-16, 12-8 Horizon) completed a comeback 7-6 win over the Youngstown State Penguins (18-17, 13-11 Horizon) on Saturday.  

“We didn’t do a very good job in the box early, but then we just started to relax a bit and started stacking some quality at-bats together,” head coach Scott Doffek said. “Then we strung some together in the seventh and came back and stole one.”  

A single from Mitchell Buban and a Conner Goodman walk to start the bottom of the seventh sparked the Panthers’ comeback from a 6-2 deficit.  

Mike Ferri singled, scoring both runners.  

Jack Cavanaugh’s bases-loaded run-scoring ground out cut the lead to one. Jack Kraus then smacked a two-run single up the middle to give UWM a lead it would not relinquish.  

The story was different for the Panthers early on, finding themselves down 3-0 after the first four innings.  Penguins’ starting pitcher Jon Snyder went to work early, striking out 9 batters in the first five innings. 

With two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning, Nick Winters drove in two runs to put the Panthers on the board.

Panthers’ relief pitcher Andrew Neu allowed three runs in the top of the sixth inning to make the deficit 6-2 but was able to escape the inning with three runners on base.  

UWM closer AJ Blubaugh entered the game with the lead in the eighth and executed to perfection.  

Blubaugh allowed a leadoff hit in the ninth but struck out the final two batters to close out his fourth save of the season.  

“We were a little overaggressive which allowed the leadoff guy on, but AJ just executed some really huge pitches with a guy on second base which ultimately gave us the win,” Doffek said.