MILWAUKEE – Paul Snieder’s final at-bat ended with a fly ball that fell just 60 feet short of the left-field wall.
The senior first baseman’s flyout to left fielder Jonathan Capasso allowed Wisconsin-Milwaukee to escape with a 6-4 victory over Northwestern on Wednesday.
“I was just trying to hit the ball hard on a line somewhere,” Snieder said. “If I hit a home run, I hit a home run. That’s fine, but I definitely wasn’t thinking I’m going to try to hit a home run because then bad things just start to happen.”
Snieder finished one-for-five on the day, with his lone hit coming in the fifth inning, when he took a curveball deep into right field, where it glanced off right fielder Mark Strey’s glove for a double.
“I thought for sure when he was putting up his glove, I was like, ‘Oh here we go again. He’s going to catch another one,'” Snieder said. “That was real nice when I saw it drop behind him.”
Snieder came home on a soft ground ball from Jack Havey, the third of Havey’s three RBIs on the day. The junior left fielder knocked in his first two runs in the top of the third, with a single that gave the Cats an early 2-1 edge.
Sophomore starting pitcher Dan Tyson was unable to hold the lead for long, surrendering the tying run in the bottom of the third. Panthers center fielder Luke Meeteer aggressively took second base on a rip into the outfield, and scored on a wild pitch that went right through senior catcher Geoff Rowan’s legs.
“Obviously (Rowan) has had a couple of glitches,” coach Paul Stevens said. “That just seemed to be an unfortunate mishap, but I wouldn’t trade anybody right now behind the plate for Geoff Rowan because he’s just one of the best catchers around at the moment.”
UW-Milwaukee took the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth on a rocket over the right-field wall by first baseman Paul Hoenecke.
“We always say you got to find a way to get ahead of them and get back in the dugout, and we didn’t do that,” Stevens said. “You just lose your focus for a second. You leave pitches up or hang breaking balls and that’s what happens. (Tyson) made a couple of mistakes and they got hit.”
Senior reliever Michael Jahns put two Panthers on base and Capasso made him pay, ripping a ground ball by a diving Havey to drive Hoenecke home and give the Panthers a 6-4 lead.
Though the loss upset him, Havey was still able to look back fondly on the stadium he had the chance to play in on Wednesday.
“It’s easily one of the best major league parks around, so we get excited each year when we get to play here,” Havey said. “We always circle it on the calendar.”
NU will look to put an end to its current five-game skid this weekend when it hosts Indiana in its final Big Ten series of the season. For Snieder, who has hit the ball hard lately with little to show for it, he looks at this weekend as a chance to pound out a few more hits against Big Ten foes before leaving NU.
“We just got to keep pounding away when it gets to the weekend,” Snieder said. “It’s our last Big Ten series, and I want to go out with a bang. You know, let’s go up there and just swing the bats, pitch well and play some defense.”
