DAYTON, Ohio – The Milwaukee baseball team scored three runs in the 11th inning to outlast No. 2 UIC 14-11 and advance to the Horizon League Championship on Saturday.
 
Milwaukee will face No. 1 Wright State and will need to beat the Raiders twice for the Horizon League Championship.  
 
"What an unbelievable effort by a whole bunch of guys," head coach Scott Doffek said. "Unfortunately, we were kind of pinned into having to start the game in some really bad conditions and it made the first two innings look horribly ugly for both sides. And then we sit for a half an hour and McCarty comes back and was fantastic for six innings and just kept putting up zeroes. To UIC's credit, so did their pitcher. And then we were finally able to get some big hits late and get the lead."
 
After Luke Seidel was hit by a pitch to lead off the 11th and moved over on a sacrifice bunt, Mitchell Buban singled to center to score the center fielder and put MKE up 12-11.
 
Jack Kraus followed with double and Zach Nogalski poked a single to right field to put Milwaukee in front by three.
 
In the bottom half of the 11th, AJ Blubaugh entered for his third inning of action and worked around a pair of baserunners to earn the victory. The freshman totaled a career-high 85 pitches, earning his second victory of the season.
 
Both offenses got rolling early, combining for 15 hits and 16 runs in the first two innings. Milwaukee put up six in the top of the first, but UIC responded with five in the bottom half.
 
After Joe Vyskocil and Zach Nogalski added two more to the Panthers' total, the Flames responded for three more to tie it 8-8 following a brief weather delay.
 
Starter Matt McCarty settled down and was impressive the rest of the way as he totaled 143 pitches across eight innings striking out a career-high nine. The redshirt junior allowed just three hits in his final five innings to keep the Panthers tied.
 
In the ninth, Milwaukee appeared to take control with three runs behind a Vyskocil two-run single and an 11-8 lead, but UIC rallied for three runs on three hits off of AJ Blubaugh to tie it.
 
After an empty 10th, Seidel got the rally started as he reached first on a hit by pitch.
 
McCarty ended the day with a career-high 143 pitches in eight innings. He scattered 12 hits and allowed six earned runs while walking one and striking out nine.
 
"Just an incredible effort by McCarty," Doffek commented. "That is the kind of stuff it is going to take to do something special here. You are going to need people to do something special to make it to the final day and he certainly did."
 
Blubaugh gave up three runs in the ninth but then responded to record a pair of scoreless innings as he finished with four strikeouts in three innings pitched.
 
Seidel and Buban each finished with three hits apiece for the Panthers, who totaled 15 as a team. Nogalski, Nate DeYoung, and Ferri each added two hits each.
 
"We are down to the last opportunity, so if you are quitting now, you are probably playing for the wrong reasons," Doffek said. "The team never quit. We scored again and gave the ball back to AJ – he is the guy we want to have the ball down the stretch."
 
Milwaukee now advances to Saturday's Horizon League Championship to take on top-seeded Wright State. The Panthers will need to take down the Raiders twice to hoist the trophy. First pich for game one is scheduled for 12:00 pm CT. Live coverage links can be found on MKEPanthers.com.