HAMMOND, Ind. - The baseball team improved to 9-0 all-time against Purdue Northwest but it wasn't easy on Friday in a 2-1 win over the Pride to open up a four-game weekend series. The Panthers pulled themselves into a tie for first in the GLIAC at 6-3 alongside Northwood who lost to Ashland today. 

On a 52-degree sunny and breezy day at Dowling Park, the pitching held firm as James Kohl for the Panthers and Anthony Noble for the Pride dueled. Kohl tossed seven scoreless innings and allowed just three hits to improve to 4-0. He fought his control with five walks but did manage to strike out six in a 115-pitch outing. Noble went six innings and allowed five hits and two runs. He walked three and fanned five in a 103-pitch effort and is now 0-3 on the mound.

The Panthers opened the scoring in the sixth inning as Nolan Bryant led off with a double to right center. Bryant advanced to third with two outs and then Noah Marcoux hit a RBI ground-rule double to right for a 1-0 lead.

Davenport got another run in the seventh with another leadoff double off the bat of Kamrin Markwardt. Noble exited the game and Justin Walter take the ball in relief. Gaetano Vallone pinch hit and advanced Markwardt to third on a sacrifice bunt. Hunter Ruhstorfer walked and took second on a wild pitch. Christian Petre had a RBI grounder to second base as Markwardt scored for a 2-0 lead.

Kohl was replaced to begin the eighth inning by Max Swan. He gave up a double but that runner was erased at third on the next at-bat. Swan got a double play 6-4-3 to end the inning. The game got interesting in the bottom of the ninth. A single and walk put the tying runs on base and then Cal Djuraskovic took over on the mound. He threw a wild one to first on a sacrifice bunt attempt to load the bases with no outs. He then got a strikeout, sacrifice fly to score a run, and a groundout to second to end the game. For Djuraskovic it was his fourth save of the season.

Marcoux was the only Panther with multiple hits going 2-for-4. Ray Hilbrich was the lone Pride player with multiple hits going 2-for-4. The game lasted just 2 hours and 33 minutes. The series continues tomorrow with a doubleheader scheduled to start at 2:00 PM eastern time.