UW-Milwaukee Upends Youngstown State on Final Day of Baseball Regular Season
May 22, 2005
UW-Milwaukee 12, Youngstown State 7
NILES, Ohio -- Junior Zak Rivera went 5-for-6 with two home runs, two doubles and six RBIs to lead the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team to a 12-7 win over Youngstown State Sunday afternoon in Niles, Ohio. The Panthers (22-29, 12-8 Horizon) avoided a sweep at the hands of the Penguins (28-25, 10-6 Horizon), who won the first three games of the series.
The hits came early and often for UWM, as it scored in eight of the nine innings and slugged out 17 hits on the day. Joining Rivera in the hit parade was junior Mike Goetz who collected three hits and senior Charlie Reschke, junior Joe Nowicki and freshman Jesse Hart who finished with two hits apiece.
Rivera got the Panthers out to a 3-0 lead with a solo home run in the first inning and a two-run single in the second. After allowing a pair of runs in the second inning, Milwaukee pushed its lead back up to three at 5-2 with a single run in both the third and fourth innings.
In the fifth inning, the two teams combined for seven runs, as UWM went up 8-2 with three in the top of the frame. Youngstown State then cut that lead to 8-6 with four of its own in the bottom of the inning. The Panthers had benefited from Rivera's second home run of the game, a three-run shot to right-center field.
Before being held scoreless in the seventh inning, UWM added two more runs to make it 10-6. With one out in the sixth, Reschke hit a solo home run and Hart followed with a ground rule double. After stealing third, Hart scored on a sacrifice fly by junior Jeremy Wilson.
Both teams traded runs in the eighth inning and Rivera led off the ninth with his second double of the game. Senior pitcher Cory Kleeba pinch ran for Rivera and scored on the first of two Penguin errors in the frame to provide the 12-7 final score.
On the mound, sophomore Mike Rawuerdink (1-5) threw 3.2 innings of relief, surrendering one run on four hits, for his first win in a Panther uniform. He struck out two and walked just one in his second strong outing of the week. Sophomore Robert Michalkiewicz had gotten the start, allowing five earned runs in 4.1 innings. Junior Jed Dolske closed the game out with a scoreless ninth inning.
With five hits, Rivera became the first Panthers in over four years to post a five-hit game, while he posted the team's second six-RBI performance of the season. Things seemed to fall in to place for UWM all day as, in addition to tying their second-best hit total of the season, the home Penguins made five errors in the game.
