May 25, 2008

Box Score

NILES, Ohio - Tournament MVP Brett Schaefer went 5-for-5 and drove in four runs to lead UIC to a 16-3 victory over the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team in the Horizon League Tournament Championship Sunday at Eastwood Field. The Panthers (25-36), in search of their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002, fell behind early and could not recover as the Flames (34-20) won their second-straight tournament crown and fourth in the last six years.

UWM had quite a week in finishing in second place, pulling off three upsets among four victories in its six-game run at Eastwood Field.

"I could not be any more proud of the guys but we just ran out of gas," UWM head coach Scott Doffek said. "We were only in it to come in first. I was hoping we could come down here and play inspired baseball and give ourselves a chance to win it and we did that - it was just a great effort all week for the guys."

The Flames jumped ahead in the first two innings and never looked back. Peter Ifft was in control all day, limiting the potent Milwaukee offense to seven hits - only three through the first seven innings - and three runs. The Panthers also had their streak of consecutive games with 10 or more hits snapped at 13.

UWM got on the scoreboard in the third inning on a sacrifice fly from senior Jesse Hart that scored freshman Cole Kraft, who had doubled to open the inning. Following Kraft's double, Ifft faced the minimum until the seventh inning.

Milwaukee added some runs late. Senior Nick Wichser had an RBI-single in the eighth and sophomore Tim Patzman added a run-scoring double to close it out.

Things started disastrously for Milwaukee, as seven of the first 10 batters of the game hit safely against junior starter Andy Hetebrueg. UIC went on to plate five runs in the first and four more in the second inning en route to that 9-0 advantage.

"Hetebrueg coming back on two days rest after throwing 130 pitches was a tough thing to ask," Doffek said. "We were asking him to do something that is really hard to do."

Hart's double in the eighth extended his school-record to 28 and was the 66th of his career, tying Adam Casillas of Oral Roberts (66 from 1984-87) for the Horizon League career mark. He ended the season with a .346 batting average, becoming the first player in the history of the program to bat over .300 in all four seasons.

Several UWM players were named to the Horizon League All-Tournament Team: Jesse Hart at second base, Ben McClarey on the mound, Troy Vesling in the outfield and Shawn Wozniak as the designated hitter.