FRANKLIN, Wis. – Evening the weekend series at a game apiece and retaining third place in the Horizon League standings, the Oakland Golden Grizzlies defeated the Milwaukee Panthers, 5-3, on Saturday, May 6 at Franklin Field.

Snapping a brief two-game skid, the Golden Grizzlies move to 20-27 (12-11 Horizon League), while Milwaukee drops to 21-23 (10-12).

Turning in his third consecutive quality start and continuing to move up Oakland's all-time wins list, senior left-hander Travis Densmore picked up his team-leading fifth victory of 2023, allowing three runs on eight hits with a walk and two strikeouts while working into the seventh inning.

Saturday was career win No. 13 for Densmore, a Mesa, Arizona native, putting him just five back of a share of fourth in program history.

Striking out four, graduate student Christian Stelling, a fellow lefty, handled the final nine outs, earning his first save of the year and third of his career.

Driving in a run for the third time in the last four games, junior designated hitter Lucas Loos started the scoring by plating graduate student first baseman Gabe Lux with a single in the first.

His sixth and seventh RBI of the campaign, freshman left fielder Reggie Bussey extended the Golden Grizzly lead to 3-0 with a double down the left field line in the fourth, scoring sophomore third baseman Brandon Nigh, who posted his second-straight multiple-hit showing, and graduate student second baseman Jared Miller.

For Bussey, this was his second double of the season and first since the April 12 clash with the Michigan State Spartans in East Lansing.

The Panthers tallied their first run in the sixth when Waterford, Wisconsin senior third baseman Aaron Chapman singled home classmate and left fielder Luke Seidel.

Giving him a club-best 31 RBI on the year, while also extending his team lead in home runs with No. 9, redshirt senior shortstop Thomas Green provided Oakland with a pair of pivotal insurance runs with a two-run blast left in the seventh, making the scoreboard read 5-1.

After the first four Milwaukee hitters reached in the home half of the seventh, the Panthers had it within two, 5-3, but Stelling was to retire the top of the order and prevent further damage.

Milwaukee had difficulty generating any traffic on the basepaths against Stelling in the eighth and ninth, managing just a single in each inning, with the latter being of the infield variety.

In addition to Nigh, Bussey and Lux also had two-hit performances Saturday and redshirt sophomore center fielder Drew Collins was on base three times, registering a knock and two walks.

Finishing with a line of three runs on six hits with six base on balls and a trio of strikeouts over 4.1 innings, Caledonia, Wisconsin junior right-hander Luke Hansel (5-3) took the loss for the Panthers.


Photograph courtesy of Milwaukee Panthers Athletics.

UP NEXT
The rubber game of this series will be held on Sunday, May 7 at 1 p.m. on ESPN+ (subscription required).

As of this recap's publication, neither club has announced their starting pitcher.