Milwaukee, UIC to clash in final

By Pete Mollica

The Panthers beat the Flames 7-2 Saturday to force today’s deciding contest.

NILES — Wisconsin-Milwaukee just doesn’t want to go home.

The Panthers, seeded No. 5 in the Horizon League baseball tournament, posted two wins Saturday, including an impressive 7-2 victory over top-seeded Illinois-Chicago, putting the Panthers into today’s championship game against UIC at noon at Eastwood Field.

Milwaukee defeated Valparaiso 8-3 in the first game Saturday in the losers bracket final.

The Panthers did it with plenty of hitting and some solid pitching, none better than a complete game, six-hitter by senior left-hander Ben McClarey in the second game.

“We drove a long way to get here and we figured we might as well stay around as long as we can,” said Milwaukee coach Scott Doffek.

“We got an outstanding pitching performance from Ben McClarey,” he added. “He was a little wild and walked too many batters, but he was tough in the clutch when he needed to be.”

The Panthers came up with 27 hits in Saturday’s two games, including 13 in the second game against the Flames (33-20) who won the Horizon League regular season title and are the defending tournament champions. This is the Flames’ fifth appearance in the tournament championship game in the last six seasons and they’ve won it three times.

But Saturday was all Milwaukee; the Panthers built a 4-0 lead and coasted to the win. The Panthers (25-35) are 4-1 in the tournament and their only loss was to UIC in the winners bracket final, 7-5, after holding a 5-0 lead.

“We’ve always played well against UIC even though we won just one game in the regular season against them,” Doffek said. “We dropped three one-run games at their place and split at our place.”

McClarey (3-1), who had never gone beyond the seventh inning in 12 appearances this season, struck out four, walked six and also hit a batter, but he never lost confidence in his pitching.

“I knew that we needed a strong game today and needed to give our bullpen some rest,” McClarey said. “I just went out there and took it one out at a time today, never thought about the pressures or the situations. It was probably the best game of my career.”

He had plenty of support both offensively and defensively from his teammates.

The Panthers struck early as leadoff hitter Andy Gerhartz doubled down the left field line to open the game and scored when Jesse Hart hit a high hopper that bounced over the shortstop’s head into left for a single.

In the fourth the Panthers’ Troy Vesling singled to lead off the inning, was sacrificed to second by Andy Hetebrueg and scored on Doug Dekoning’s single to center. After Gerhartz singled, Hart drilled a pitch over the left-field fence for a two-run homer.

UIC scored its first run in the fifth when McClarey walked Jason Ganek to lead off the inning. He went to third on Steve McGuiggan’s single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jake Carr.

Milwaukee blew the game open in the seventh with three more runs on four singles and a sacrifice fly to take a 7-1 lead.

UIC added one more run in the seventh on a Panthers’ error, a walk and a single by Carr.

Gerhartz and Hart each had three hits for the Panthers and Dekoning added a pair. Carr had two of the six hits for the Flames.

mollica@vindy.com