MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The Milwaukee baseball team ran into an impressive pitching performance from UIC's Jacob Key and didn't take advantage of early opportunities, falling to the Flames 3-1 on Friday afternoon.
 
"He's locked in right now and the last few weeks, he's been doing it to everyone," head coach Scott Doffek said. "Our approach was fairly immature and we didn't adjust and we fell right into his game plan."
 
Nick Winter lifted an eighth-inning home run to left field for his first of the year, but the solo shot was all the Panthers could get against the Flames' ace.
 
Key pitched his second straight complete game, scattering six hits and striking out eight innings pitched.
 
The graduate senior did not walk any and surrendered the one run as he worked his fifth victory of the year.
 
Riley Frey put together another solid outing for the Panthers, allowing just two earned runs across six innings. He struck out four and walked four in the loss.  
 
Out of the bullpen, Andrew Neu struck out three in 2.2 innings without surrendering an earned run while Patrick Tomfohrde entered for the final out to escape from a jam.
 
"I'm certainly happy with the pitching," Doffek continued. "I thought our pitchers did a good enough job to keep us in the game, but we didn't get anything going. "We had opportunities early, but you have to take advantages of guys like that."
 
Mitchell Buban finished with a pair of hits but as a whole, Milwaukee tallied just six base knocks.
 
The Panthers and Flames will meet for a noon doubleheader tomorrow from Franklin Field. Both games will feature an ESPN3 broadcast with live coverage links available on MKEPanthers.com.