CHAMPAIGN, ILL. – A crooked number in the bottom of the eighth inning for No. 24 Illinois spoiled an upset for the Milwaukee baseball team falling 9-6 Wednesday evening from Illinois Field.
 
Milwaukee (4-11) took the reins early in the game scoring four runs in four innings, and tallied another two runs in the top of the seventh to tie the game, but giving away free passes to a team that has won seven of its last eight games hurt the Panthers as Illinois (9-4) put up three runs in the bottom of the eighth to win 9-6.
 
"That's a hot team right now and we had a really good opportunity to come in here and steal one, but we weren't able to get it done with pitching like that," said head coach Scott Doffek. "I felt that we had control of that game early, but free bases and falling behind hitters is what did us in."
 
The Panther bats jumped all over Illinois starting pitcher Cyrillo Watson tagging him four runs on seven hits in four innings of work. Milwaukee did the most damage against Watson in the top of the fourth inning scoring three runs for an early 4-0 lead.
 
Hitting was contagious for the Panthers in the top of the fourth inning while Matt Quartel began the inning with a one out double to center, then three-straight hits followed. Once Quartel scored off a Tyler Bordner single, Milwaukee's Joe Vyskocil and Oakland Scanlan landed back-to-back doubles for a four-run advantage.
 
In the bottom half of the inning, the Fighting Illini answered back scoring four runs of their own. After three solid innings from Panthers' starting pitcher Alex Fischer, freshman Mike Edwards struggled to close out at-bats. With runners at the corners and already having scored one run, Edwards looked to come out of the inning with little damage working ahead in the count of Illinois' big hitter Mike Massey, but Massey took the next pitch of the 1-2 count over the right field fence for a three-run shot tying the game at four.
 
After Illinois added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth, the Panthers rallied in the seventh for two runs. Milwaukee began the inning with two quick outs after a ground out and line out, but Trevor Schwecke began the rally with a rope to right center for a stand-up double. Colin Kreiter continued with his hot hitting with his second double of the game to right field and later scored off a Ben Chally single to tie the game at six.
 
The bottom of the eighth inning spurned the Panthers as the Milwaukee bullpen fell behind the count resulting in three runs on three hits, including a two-run homerun giving Illinois a 9-6 lead.
 
In their last chance at-bats, Milwaukee didn't go down without a fight. The tying run came to the plate twice for the Panthers after singles from Mike Ferri and Schwecke, but Illinois' Joey Gerber closed out the inning by getting Kreiter and Chally to fly out for the save.
 
The Milwaukee lineup had four hitters with multi-hit performances, Mike Ferri, Trevor Schwecke, Colin Kreiter and Joe Vyskocil who accumulated eight of the Panthers 13 hits.
 
UWM has a quick turnaround with Horizon League play beginning on Saturday against Youngstown State in Ohio. The three-game series will begin with a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 12 p.m. central, and follow with a single game Sunday also beginning at 12 p.m. central to close out the series.