FRANKLIN, Wisc. — The Wright State baseball program used 10 unanswered runs to take down Milwaukee 12-8 on Friday night at Franklin Field.
The Raiders kept their hopes alive for the top seed at the upcoming Horizon League Championship, as they improved to 26-25 overall and 19-9 in HL play. The Panthers dropped to 20-29 on the season and 9-17 against conference opponents. The teams will conclude the series and regular season tomorrow at 3 p.m. ET.
WSU tallied 19 hits as a team, including five doubles, one triple, and two home runs. The Raiders went 8-for-17 (.471) with nine RBI in two-out situations.
Gehrig Anglin led the way as he batted 3-for-5 with a home run, a walk, and four RBI. With the 16th homer of the season, he tied the single-season school record held by Nick Shields ('01) and Bryan Vickers ('04).
Julian Greenwell,
Sammy Sass, and
Andrew Patrick finished with three hits apiece, while
Alec Sayre had two hits and two RBI.
Avery Fisher blasted a solo home run in his first at-bat of the game.
Starting pitcher
Sebastian Gongora allowed four runs, three earned, on six hits and one walk while striking out four batters in four innings.
Tristan Haught (5-1) earned the winning decision after tossing three consecutive innings before being tagged for four runs, two earned, in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Jay Luikart blanked MKE in the ninth for his seventh save of the 2022 campaign.
A two-run single off the bat of Nate DeYoung put the Panthers in front 2-0 in the bottom of the first inning. Milwaukee pushed its lead to 3-0 in the following frame with a solo home run by Tommy Benson.
Fisher got the Raiders on the board in the top of the third with a solo home run over the left-field wall. However, MKE extended its lead to 4-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning after turning two hits and an error into one run.
Wright State broke through with five runs in the top of the fifth inning, resulting in a 6-4 advantage for the Raiders. The bases were loaded with two outs, as Luikart doubled, Fisher reached on a hit by pitch, and Greenwell singled. Sayre followed with a two-run single, scoring Luikart and Fisher. Anglin then gave the Raiders their first lead of the game with a three-run homer to deep left.
The Raiders stayed hot offensively, opening the sixth inning with consecutive hits by Patrick and Greenwell.
Justin Riemer followed with a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Patrick from third base.
WSU continued to thrive at the plate with three runs in the top of the seventh, thanks to a two-run triple by Patrick and RBI double by Greenwell. In the eighth inning, the scoring continued as Sass had an RBI single to extend Wright State's edge to 11-4.
The Panthers rallied back with four runs on four hits and an error in the bottom of the eighth inning. With the potential tying run at the plate, Luikart switched from center field to pitcher to record the final out of the frame.
Wright State added an insurance run off an RBI single by Anglin in the top of the ninth before Luikart blanked MKE in the bottom half of the inning to seal the victory.
