CHICAGO, Ill. - Early errors put the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team behind and Jeff Boehm's two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning sparked a UIC rally that put the game away in an 11-2 loss Friday night at Granderson Stadium.
 
The Panthers (23-14, 9-9 Horizon League) made five errors and the Flames (19-16-1, 14-5 Horizon League) took advantage, building a 4-2 lead after six innings before adding a big four-run seventh to help claim game one of the weekend series.
 
"I thought for the first six innings, Brian Keller threw the ball really, really well," Milwaukee head coach Scott Doffek said. "We did not help him too much and put ourselves in some stressful situations. But still, we had a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning and let the sixth and seventh get away from us."
 
UWM collected just five hits on the day, led by two hits apiece from senior Mike Porcaro and junior Luke Meeteer.
 
Jake Dahlberg (6-2) picked up the win with his Horizon-League leading fourth complete game. He walked three and struck out just one, but came up with 16 ground ball outs on the night.
 
"He's a good pitcher," Doffek said. "He feeds off your aggressiveness. We had a chance to get to him early and he made some big pitches."
 
Milwaukee overcame an early unearned run by the Flames when Porcaro knocked in a two-out run in the top of the second. The Panthers then went ahead in the third when Meeteer doubled to lead off and scored on an RBI-ground out off the bat of senior Sam Koenig.
 
A two-out hit by the Flames equalized the contest at 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning. Another pair of unearned runs put the Flames on top, 4-2, in the bottom of the sixth before the big four-run rally followed. In all, UIC scored 10 unanswered after Milwaukee had taken a 2-1 lead.
 
Junior Brian Keller (3-4) suffered the loss, allowing eight runs – just four earned – in 7.0 innings. He walked one and struck out six.
 
As announced earlier this evening, the teams will not play Saturday due to the rain in the forecast in Chicago. The series wraps up with a doubleheader Sunday, with first pitch of game one scheduled for 11 a.m. from Granderson Stadium.
 
"When the game starts on Sunday, it's a whole new day," Doffek said. "I told the guys, when we played at our park, we won the first game and they won the next two. We have to start Sunday by winning each pitch one at a time."