UW-Milwaukee pounds Youngstown State 16-6 in baseball tourney opener

Box Score

May 23, 2007

UW-Milwaukee 16, Youngstown State 6
Chicago, Ill. - Josh Groves drove in six runs with a home run and two doubles as UW-Milwaukee stormed past Youngstown State 16-6 in the opening round of the 2007 U.S. Army Horizon League Baseball Championship at Les Miller Field.

The third-seeded Panthers let three earlier leads slip away but scored eight runs in the seventh inning to improve to 24-30 on the season, while sixth seed Youngstown State slipped to 17-36.

The Panthers jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first inning on Nick Wichser's RBI double and a two-run homer from Groves---his first of the season, just clearing the right-field fence---off YSU starter Lucas Engle. The Penguins answered with two runs in the third on a bases-loaded walk and Erich Diedrich's RBI single, before Tom Clayton doubled and came around on Diedrich's ground-out in the fifth inning to tie the game at 3-3.

UWM came back in the bottom of the frame on Jesse Hart's run-scoring double and a sacrifice fly off Groves' bat, but YSU evened the score again in the sixth when Brent Parks cleared the right-field fence for his fifth homer of the season and Clayton drove in John Koehnlein with the Penguins' third consecutive two-out single.

Shawn Wozniak's fourth home run of the year staked the Panthers to a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the sixth, but YSU came back one more time when Diedrich launched his seventh home run of the spring high over the center-field fence. The Penguins could not come back again, though, after UW-Milwaukee sent 13 batters to the plate against three YSU hurlers in the bottom of the inning.

Wichser led off with a single and took third on Groves' double. Rob Brockel plated both teammates with his triple to right-center field, and scored himself on a Grant Berkovitz single. Andy Hetebrueg added an RBI single and Groves put the game out of reach with a bases-clearing double.Groves finished three-for-four at the plate and Wichser and Wozniak each scored three runs for the Panthers, who rapped out 17 hits, including eight for extra bases. Diedrich drove in three Panther runs, with Clayton collecting three of YSU's 11 hits.

Michalkiewicz improved to 6-4, allowing six runs (four earned) on ten hits in six innings. Engle slipped to 4-6 after yielding nine runs on 11 hits in six-plus frames.

UW-Milwaukee advances in the winner's bracket and will face second-seeded Wright State (34-20) at 3 p.m. (CT) Thursday. Youngstown State meets Butler in an elimination game at 11 a.m., while Thursday's schedule also includes a 7 p.m. winner's bracket contest between top-seeded UIC (31-19) and fourth seed Cleveland State, a 6-1 victor over Butler in Wednesday's other game.