MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The Milwaukee baseball team won it's final regular season home game at Henry Aaron Field winning 5-2 over Northern Illinois Tuesday afternoon. With the win, the Panthers finish the 2019 season 10-4 and an all-time record of 285-120 (.704 win percentage) from Henry Aaron Field.
A strong pitching performance by the Milwaukee (30-18-1) pitching staff and clutch hitting by
Trevor Schwecke led the Panthers to its 30
th victory of the season in its final regular season home game against Northern Illinois who now move to 17-33 on the season.
"The way Matt (McCarty) started out was a little rough, but I loved the way he recovered and started to find himself in the second and third innings and pitch well enough to give us a chance," said head Coach
Scott Doffek. "Both Uselman (Clayton) and Tomfohrde (Patrick) did a nice job for us as well, which is key for us heading into Youngstown and the conference tournament."
As mentioned, MKE's
Matt McCarty struggled in the first inning hitting three-straight NIU batters after a ground out, but limited the scoring damage to just one run off a fielder's choice RBI. From there, McCarty settled in nicely allowing just two additional hits before Usleman took the mound in the sixth. McCarty ended with a 5.1 IP, five hit, three run stat line.
Offensively, Milwaukee cut the 2-0 deficit in half in the fourth when
Colin Kreiter tripled to right center and scored a pitch later off a wild pitch.
Then in fifth, Milwaukee took the momentum from a quick defensive inning and turn the game around with a three-run, three-hit inning. Catcher
Jack Thelen led off the inning with a double down the left field line while
Mike Ferri singled then stole second for runners second and third. The Panthers eventually loaded the bases with two outs and almost came up empty handed until
Trevor Schwecke cleared the bases with a double down the left field line and take a 4-2 lead.
Both teams exchanged runs in the sixth, but thanks to the Panther bullpen the Huskies stayed at three runs after six.
In the final three frames, Uselman and Tomfohrde pitched a total of three scoreless innings giving up just one hit and combined for four strikeouts. Tomfohrde also picked up his fourth save of the season closing out the 5-3 victory for the Panthers.
Milwaukee will wrap up the regular season with a trip to Youngstown state. The Panthers can mathematically still finish anywhere from first to third place in the final standings, with their eventual postseason opponent and game time to be determined based on what happens this weekend. The first game of the three is slated for Thursday, May 16 at 2 p.m. (CT).
