OAK CREEK, Wis. – Despite another stellar outing by MATC starter Luke Kleklamp, the Stormers dropped their nine-inning home contest, 2-1, against Bryant & Stratton on Tuesday.

Klekamp's performance on the mound was anything out of the ordinary. The right-hander nearly went a complete game, tossing eight strong innings with four strikeouts. He surrendered just two earned runs on five hits and zero walks.

"It was a great performance by Klekamp," MATC head coach Caleb Bounds said. "He's done it all year for us and gave us a chance to win every single game he's pitched this year.

"He went out today and pitched his best performance of the year and got the loss. It's a tough one to swallow for sure."

As strong as Klecamp was on the rubber, the Stormers' offense couldn't match his efforts. Collectively MATC's lineup combined for 18 strikeouts and were faced with four-straight 1-2-3 innings on offense between the second and fifth innings. They totaled just two hits on the day, a pair of singles in the first, before going hitless the rest of the way through.

"There's no real excuses other than we just have to be more competitive in the box," Bounds said. "If we could just be more competitive then it just gives us a real good opportunity to win there, especially in a game like today."

Bryant & Stratton broke the 0-0 tie in the top of the fifth. A leadoff double eventually led to an RBI groundout, giving the Bobcats a 1-0 lead. Klekamp surrendered his second and final run in the sixth on an RBI single to left field.

Luckily, the Stormers got on the board in the bottom of the sixth to cut their deficit to 2-1. Designated-hitter Marco Falletti reached first on a dropped third-strike before later scoring off an RBI sac-fly by freshman teammate Brady Johnson.

Outside of its lone run in the sixth, MATC's best scoring opportunities came in the first and ninth innings. In the first, the Stormers had a bases-loaded one-out situation and came out empty with a pair of strikeouts. Similarly in the ninth, MATC had a runner on third with two-outs and struck out again to effectively end the game.

"Whenever we get those opportunities, we have to do something with them, and we've been squandering them a lot this year," Bounds said of his team's lack of execution. "It's a reason why we are 10-13 and we're struggling a little bit is because we're just not getting the hits when needed."

STAT BOOK
Falletti paced the Stormers' offense with a single and one stolen base. Wissen added a single and four putouts in center field, three of which came in back-to-back-to-back fashion off flyouts. Johnson contributed the Stormers' lone run off an RBI sac-fly. Klekamp (1-3) suffered his third loss on the bump. Josh Bardnt tossed one scoreless inning of relief, totaling two strikeouts.

UP NEXT
MATC (10-13) will hit the road for a nine-inning game against Carthage College JV at 3 p.m. Wednesday.