ROCHESTER, Mich. - It was a defensive duel this afternoon on the Oakland Baseball Field as the Golden Grizzlies defeated the Milwaukee Panthers, 1-0.
 
The Golden Grizzlies' (26-24, 14-11 HL) three sole hits came from Brandon Nigh, Reggie Bussey and Ian Cleary and both Nigh and Cleary had an extra base hit. Hunter Pidek showed out with another quality start as he only allowed three hits in 7.1 innings pitched and sent five batters back to the dugout from the dish.
 
The Panthers (16-31, 11-14 HL) were led by Tyler Bickers who led the day with a pair of hits as Luke Hansel struck out six on the mound.
 
It was a defensive duel in the first four innings of play as only a trio of hits were tallied, as Oakland held the edge with a pair. The Panthers had the chance to cross the plate as it had a pair of runners in scoring position in the fifth, but the Golden Grizzlies forced the final out to keep it scoreless. The Panthers attacked the following inning as well as it put two on the base pads with no outs. A strikeout was followed by a flyout double play as Trent Rice threw a laser and got the runner trying to tag up to third.
 
In the seventh, Brandon Nigh grabbed the Golden Grizzlies first hit since the second inning with a double and no outs. Lucas Day and Brandon Heidal followed behind with back-to-back walks to load the bases as Ian Cleary sent a long fly ball towards left for a sacrifice fly and brought Nigh home for the first run of the game. The Panthers were threatening to score once again as it had runners on first and second, but Brandon Decker, who came in for relief, caught the batter swinging to get out of the inning.
 
Oakland went into the top of the ninth up, 1-0, as it needed three more outs to put the game away. Decker and the team came through as the righty recorded his seventh save of the year to win, 1-0.
 
The Golden Grizzlies were outhit, 5-3, as neither team committed an error on the day. The Panthers left 10 stranded as Oakland left three, as the Golden Grizzlies totaled seven strikeouts on the mound compared to the Panthers six.
 
The Golden Grizzlies return to the diamond tomorrow (May 11) for game two of the weekend series, live on ESPN+, with first pitch set for 2:00 p.m. ET.