CHICAGO, Ill. – The Milwaukee baseball team suffered a pair of tough-luck losses, falling in a doubleheader to UIC despite allowing just four runs in the entire doubleheader Friday at Curtis Granderson Stadium.
The Panthers got strong starting performances from both
Mike Edwards in the opener and
Riley Frey in game two, yet fell by scores of 3-1 and 1-0 in their Horizon League opener.
"The game is unfair sometimes, that's for sure," head coach
Scott Doffek said. "If we play with the passion we did today, we are going to win a lot of games. My heart hurts for these kids, they really played their guts out today."
Frey was brilliant in the nightcap, striking out a season-best eight batters in 6.0-plus scoreless innings. He allowed just five hits and left with the game still at 0-0 in the seventh inning.
"Frey was brilliant, he changed speeds, worked fast, and pounded the zone … just an incredible start," Doffek said.
UIC pushed the winner across in the eighth, driving in the game's only run on a softly-hit single to right. That came an inning after Milwaukee was unable to take advantage of a huge opportunity in the seventh, when it started with runners on second and third with no outs after
Nate DeYoung and
Jack Thelen each came up with base hits but were unable to advance 90 more feet.
"We played outstanding defense again and had one opportunity in the seventh inning to take control of the game and failed to execute," Doffek said. "They get a swinging bunt in the eighth to move the runner up and then a cap-shot to drive him in."
Thelen finished 2-for-3, with
Luke Seidel and
Nick Winter also adding base hits in the pitcher's duel.
In the opener, Milwaukee got on the board first in the top of the third inning when
Adam LaRock walked and would later score on a wild pitch. That came a half-inning after the Panthers threw out a UIC runner at home to end the second, with
Mike Ferri throwing a perfect relay to Thelen to record the out and keep it at 0-0 at the time.
"We got a really good start out of Mike (Edwards) in the opener and played good defense behind him," Doffek said. "Offensively, we stung the ball hard all game and just could not get them to fall. In these conditions down here, it's always extremely hard to push runs across. We played nearly a perfect game except for one pitch."
The only other scoring came in the bottom of the third, when Matt Botcher went deep to account for rest of the scoring in the 3-1 final.
Both pitchers went the distance, with Edwards allowing seven hits and the three runs, walking one and striking out three. Jacob Key, the 2019 Horizon League Pitcher of the Year, allowed just two hits, walking two and striking out one in his complete-game effort.
The series continues tomorrow with a single game set for a first pitch of 2:05 p.m.
