Balanced Offense Powers UW-Milwaukee to Upset of Youngstown State in Horizon League Baseball Championship

May 28, 2005

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Third-seed University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee used a balanced offense and a seven-run fifth inning to upset second-seed Youngstown State University 12-10 Saturday and advance to the championship round of the 2005 Horizon League Baseball Championship.


The Panthers (25-30) now will face regular-season champion and top-seed University of Illinois at Chicago (37-18-1) at 3 p.m. Indianapolis local time. The Flames need to win only once to claim their second tournament title in three years, while UW-Milwaukee would need to beat UIC twice for the Panthers' first crown since 2002.


In the first upset of this year's tournament, the Panthers rebounded from an early five-run deficit with seven runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth for a 9-5 lead, then held on in the ninth for the win. Every UWM starter had at least one hit and one run scored, while eight of the nine had a run-batted-in.


In the fifth, UW-Milwaukee cranked out five extra-base hits, highlighted by a two-run, bases-loaded double by Joe Nowicki and run-scoring triples by Jesse Hart and Ross McCoy to take a 7-5 lead the Panthers never relinquished.


Nicholas Wichser's two-run home run in the sixth put UWM up 9-5 but Youngstown State freshman Mike Turjanica hit his first career homer in the bottom of the inning to bring the Penguins (29-27) within 9-7.


UW-Milwaukee added two runs in the seventh and another in the eighth for a 12-7 lead that appeared safe until Erich Diedrich slammed a three-run home run with one out in the bottom of the ninth off UWM reliever Jed Dolske. One out later with a runner on first, Rob Brockel came out of the bullpen and enticed Dustin Thomas into a pop out for his second save of the season and punched UWM's trip to the championship round.


UW-Milwaukee starter Mike Rauwerdink (2-5) picked up the victory despite giving up nine hits and seven earned runs in five innings. Dolske pitched a solid three-plus innings before surrendering Diedrich's homer.


Andy Svitak (5-1) suffered his first loss of the season for Youngstown State, allowing eight hits and seven earned runs in 4 2/3 innings.


The Penguins, the defending tournament champions, had taken the early lead with five runs on five hits, including three doubles to the gaps, in the bottom of the third inning.

Game 9123456789RHE#3 UW-Milwaukee000072210--12181#2 Youngstown State005002003--10121

WP-Mike Rauwerdink (2-5)LP-Andy Svitak (5-1)S-Rob Brockel (2)HR-UWM Nicholas Wichser (4), YSU Mike Turjanica (1), Erich Diedrich (6)Time-3:22