GREENVILLE, Ill. - The baseball team split two games with Wheaton on Saturday at Robert E. Smith Field. Greenville took a 9-4 win in game one before surrendering an 18-6 decision in game two.
The Panthers scored one in the first and two in the second innings of game one, building a 3-0 lead for starting pitcher Braden Maltbie.
Maltbie allowed four runs in the top of the third to give back the lead, but the Panthers tied the score in the bottom of the fifth and broked the game open with four runs in the sixth in establishing an 8-4 lead.
Greenville added another run in the bottom of the eighth.
George Schneider and Landon Mokris led Greenville's offensive effort at the top of the order.
Schneider reached base safely with two hits and two walks and scored twice.
Mokris provided two hits and a two run home run in the sixth inning after Schneider's RBI single.
Maltbie worked five innings on the mound for the Panthers, striking out seven and only allowing the four third inning runs.
Jaxen Gibson picked up the win with four stellar innings of scoreless relief, only giving up one hit and two walks while recording two strikeouts.
The game two decision went to Wheaton in a shortened eight inning game.
The Thunder scored four runs off starting pitcher Ian Wilson in the first inning of game two and were up 5-2 after two innings.
Wheaton had a 10 run fourth inning that settled things.
The Panthers added four runs in the bottom of the fifth to make the score 15-6, but Wheaton tacked on three runs in the top of the eighth to give them enough to short game the Panthers.
Wilson, Dylan Boehm, and Elijah Kjellberg all surrended five runs for the Panthers on the mound.
Terry Millikan gave Greenville 1.1 innings of scoreless relief, and Jacob Hammer added two scoreless innings on the mound.
The Panthers only had four hits in game two, but Garrett Schmitz had a huge two run double in a pinch hit appearance in the fifth.
Schneider and Mokris also had RBI base hits.
The Panthers won two of three games over the weekend, bringing their record to 2-3. Greenville will host Loras on Friday at 3 p.m. and Saturday in a Noon doubleheader.
