May 2, 2007

Game 1: UWM 9; Northern Illinos 10
Game 2: UWM 11; Northern Illinois 1

MILWAUKEE - Junior Ben McClarey made his first start in a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball uniform a good one, leading his team to an 11-1 victory over Northern Illinois with a complete game effort in game two of a doubleheader on Wednesday. The Panthers (13-26) were tied at nine late with the Huskies (24-18) in the opener, but fell 10-9.

"What can you say about a performance like that?" UWM head coach Scott Doffek said. "He has been our left-handed setup guy who we have been trying to find a spot to get him a midweek start and it worked out great. He did a great job."

Junior Grant Berkovitz was nearly unstoppable at the plate all day, going 7-for-8 in the two games to raise his season average 35 points, from .298 to .333.

McClarey walked the first batter of the game but induced a double play ball next - a sign of things to come in this game. After a scoreless top of the inning, Milwaukee struck for five runs on four hits in the bottom off NIU starter Cody Beck. The entire rally started after two outs and with nobody on base.

Walks to junior Nick Wichser and senior Rob Brockel started it and Berkovitz followed with an RBI-single. After another walk loaded the bases, a balk scored the next run. Sophomore Josh Groves followed with a bad-hop single to shortstop to make it 3-0 and junior Troy Vesling followed with a double that plated two more.

That would be all McClarey (1-0) would need. Every time he was in trouble, he got the outs he needed, helped along by four double plays turned by the UWM defense in the seven-inning affair. He scattered seven hits, walked four and struck out one. Only one runner made it beyond second base the entire game.

Beck (0-2) was the first of five Huskies pitchers to take the hill and was tagged with five earned runs in two-thirds of an innings.

Berkovitz added a two-out RBI double in the second to make it 6-0 at the time. His RBI-single in the fourth was his seventh-straight hit on the day and put UWM ahead 7-0. Groves double pushed the advantage to 8-0 before NIU would end the shutout bid in the fifth.

"Berkovitz had at least three two-out hits, and two-out hits are what it takes to win baseball games," Doffek said. "He came up huge. I sent the runners a couple of times in game two just to get Grant up with a runner on second with two outs and he came through on both occasions."

Berkovitz ended the second game 3-for-4 with three runs scored and three runs batted in. Groves was a perfect 3-for-3 with a career-high three RBIs.

In game one, UWM overcame deficits of 2-0, 6-4 and 9-8 to tie the game at 9-9 in the bottom of the sixth on Berkovitz's fourth hit of the game. But, NIU pulled out the 10-9 victory with an unearned run in the top of the seventh.

"That was a shame to lose that," Doffek said. "I thought offensively our guys did a good job and took away what they were trying to do. We just kind of let them off the hook. We had two critical 0-2 counts that they turned into walks and those runs scored. And as it turned out, those runs turned out to be the difference."

Milwaukee scored four runs in both the second and fourth innings, with the four-run rally in the fourth giving them the lead on Brockel's sixth home run off the season, a two-out, two-run shot that broke the 6-6 deadlock.

The Huskies had responded with three runs in the fifth to grab another lead at 9-8 and chase senior starter Mike Rauwerdink. Sophomore Tim Hoy (0-2) was tagged with the loss, allowing one unearned run on two hits without recording an out. NIU's Brett Kellman (2-0) was the winner with one inning of work, with Matt German working a 1-2-3 ninth for his 10th save of the year.

The Panthers recorded 11 hits in the game, with Berkovitz going 4-for-4 in the opener. Junior Jesse Hart was 2-for-3 with two runs batted in. Dave Reynolds went 3-for-3 with a game-high four RBIs to lead NIU.

The Panthers remain at home, welcoming Cleveland State for a Horizon League weekend series. Game one will be Friday night under the lights at Henry Aaron Field, starting at 6 p.m.