ROCHESTER, Mich. – Picking up their first victory on their new home turf infield and evening the weekend series at a game apiece, the Oakland Golden Grizzlies defeated the Milwaukee Panthers, 12-8, on Saturday, April 1.

Snapping a six-game skid, the Golden Grizzlies improve to 9-16 and 3-5 in Horizon League play, while Milwaukee saw their two-game win streak in conference play come to an end and is now 10-13 (2-5).

Sophomore right-hander Hunter Pidek made his fifth start of the year for Oakland, allowing seven runs, only three of which were earned, on seven hits with a walk and five strikeouts over 3.2 innings. The Troy native was very sharp over the first two frames, giving up just one run on one hit, but began to encounter some choppy waters in the third and fourth.

Coming in with runners on the corners and two outs in the fourth, junior right-hander Brandon Decker ended up inducing a fly ball off the bat of senior designated hitter Nate DeYoung to end the Panther threat and worked the final 5.1 innings, moving to 4-1 by holding Milwaukee to one run on six hits with six walks and a career-high seven strikeouts.

Drawing a season-high 12 walks, the Golden Grizzlies demonstrated a patient eye at the plate throughout the afternoon, but graduate student designated hitter Jared Miller made a big impact by swinging the bat, finishing 4-4, a career-high hit total, with three runs scored and a pair of RBI.

Junior catcher Brandon Heidal, fellow graduate student and first baseman Gabe Lux and sophomore third baseman Brandon Nigh also drove in two runs for Oakland.

Redshirt sophomore center fielder Drew Collins had an eventful day at the dish, as the Buckeye State product was hit by a pitch in each of his first three plate appearances.

The first two both skimmed Collins up near his hands on his left-handed-hitting bat and the third was the most direct hit of the bunch, striking him in the calf.

Fortunately, these errant pitches did not appear to cause any harm to Collins and he played the duration of the contest.

Beginning with a single by Nigh and ending with a Lux bases-loaded walk, the Golden Grizzlies scored six times in the first inning Saturday, more than they had totaled in any of their previous five games.

The Panthers started chipping away at the deficit with a run in the second and three in the third, and Milwaukee went ahead for the first time, 7-6, when a single by senior third baseman Aaron Chapman capped a three-run fourth.

Swinging the momentum of the game back in their favor and giving themselves an 11-7 advantage, Oakland scored five times in the fifth with the runs coming in a variety of ways. One scored on a walk by Heidal, one on catcher's interference and another on a single by senior right fielder Ian Cleary, for example.

Milwaukee plated their final run in the seventh and the Golden Grizzlies registered theirs in the eighth to bring us to our final.



UP NEXT
The rubber match of this three-game set, these two teams will square off again on Sunday, April 2 at 1 p.m. in a contest that will air live on ESPN+ (subscription required).