FRANKLIN, Wisc. – The Northern Kentucky Baseball team (16-25, 13-19 Horizon League) earned a crucial win over Milwaukee (17-27, 14-19 Horizon League) on Friday night, hitting four homers to defeat the Panthers, 9-4, at Franklin field.
AT THE PLATE
ON THE MOUND
- Ben Gerl (W, 4-6) put together the best start of his young Norse career, working eight innings and allowing just one earned run on 11 hits. He tossed 102 pitches in the game, 82 of which were strikes.
- Kaleb Meeks was the closer for the Norse, allowing two runs on four hits and a walk.
KEY MOMENTS
- Hedges led the game off with a double down the right-field line, while Doersching followed with a nine-pitch at-bat that ended with a ball being absolutely crushed to left field.
- Two innings later nearly the same thing happened. Hedges made it on base with a hard-fought walk and Doersching homered to left again, putting the Norse up, 4-0.
- In the same inning, Bacon walked and made it all the way to third thanks to a pair of groundouts by Wakeham and Haas, respectively. Marion had the next AB, driving in Bacon with a bloop single to left-center field.
- Northern Kentucky blasted its third two-run homer of the day in the fifth. Bacon led the frame off with a single and Haas took the second pitch he saw and drove it out of the park toward left field.
- A fielding error and a pair of singles allowed the Panthers to score a run in the sixth.
- The early part of the Norse lineup continued its dominance with Bacon being hit by a pitch and Wakeham capitalizing with another home run to left field, extending NKU's enormous advantage to 9-1.
- Milwaukee tallied another run in the eighth with a homer of its own.
- The Panthers mounted a comeback effort in the final inning, loading the bases and scoring two, but fell short.
UP NEXT
- The Norse continue their series with the Panthers on Saturday with a 2:00 p.m. ET doubleheader. The game will air on ESPN3.
