MILWAUKEE- Last year Milwaukee Riverside junior Khalid Abdelmawla watched Milwaukee King win the City Conference in the final regular season game in its last at-bat. Friday night, Abdelmawla and his Riverside Tigers were not as giving as they beat King, 8-4, in their first head-to-head matchup of the season.

After surrendering a three-run lead in the seventh inning less then 24 hours earlier to rival Milwaukee Hamilton, the Tigers (3-1 conference, 3-4 overall) looked to take out their anger on someone. This time it just happened to be the Generals.

“We just blew it yesterday, we gave it to them with walks and errors,” said senior captain Malcolm Frazier. “Our pitcher gave us a chance to make plays today.”

Abdelmawla did all that and more for his Tigers. With two outs and the bases loaded, Abdelmawla took the first pitch he saw and dumped it right over second base to score two runs in the first inning.

Sometimes Mother Nature can be your best friend – or in the Generals case, your worst nightmare. Swirling winds created serious havoc in the second inning. Vincent Knox hit a soft fly ball to shallow right field that was carried by the wind.

Then power-hitting junior Elisha Roundtree hit what appeared to be a routine fly ball to left-center field but the wind forced the ball to left field. Riverside took full advantage pushing its lead to 5-0.

“I though we were playing better baseball since our last game but we just did not get the result we wanted,” said King coach Tom Wozniak.

The Generals (2-2, 2-4) were not going to go so quietly. With two men on and nobody out, senior Terry Schliepp drilled a pitch to left field but was knocked down by the wind resulting in just a base hit.

Finally this horrific wind aided the Generals as senior Jake Spence took a first pitch fastball and hit it to deep center field clearing the bases. Freshman Liam Kellogg added another run on a RBI groundout.

“Jake is seeing the ball really good right now,” said Schliepp. “He really had his best game of the year so far.”

King could not get any closer however as Abdelmawla would settle down and retire 12 of the next 15 hitters he faced. The junior finished with five strike outs and just three walks over seven innings.

“This was really big for us and Khalid’s confidence,” said Knox who was perfect at the plate. “That is one of the things we have struggled with the past few years is pitching.”

Spence had eight strikeouts over four innings of work and knocked in three of the Generals four runs.

The Generals have not won at Riverside in the past four years.

“There is just something about this place I can’t explain it,” said Schliepp.

MILWAUKEE KING……….....004 000 0—4 6 3

MILWAUKEE RIVERSIDE…..220 201 x—7 11 2

Pitchers-MK: Jake Spence (L, 4 IP, 8K, 3BB) Terry Schliepp (2 IP). MR: Khalid Abdelmawla (W, 7 IP, 5K, 3BB). Top Hitters-MK: Spence 2x3 (3B, 3RBI) MR: Knox 4x4 (3B, 3R) Lynn Stingly 3x4 (3B 2RBI).