CHICAGO – The Milwaukee baseball team yielded four late-inning runs after fighting back to tie the game in the middle innings as the UIC Flames picked up an 8-4 win over the Panthers at Curtis Granderson Stadium.
 
The Panthers trailed 3-0 after the first two innings, before tying the game at three in the third. After falling behind by one again, Jack Thelen connected on his third home run of the season to even the score again at four. The middle relief held the Flames into the bottom of the eighth before UIC had four runners cross the plate to win the game late, 8-4.
 
"It was a good game today in some really tough conditions," said head coach Scott Doffek. "It came down to late opportunities, and while we couldn't they did execute. Baseball usually rewards the deserving team, and it did today."
 
The Flames jumped out to a quick three-run lead over the first two innings before Milwaukee came up in the top of the third. Jake Novak singled on an 0-2 pitch followed by a walk by Ty Olejnik to put the first two runners on in the inning. Luke Seidel singled and loaded the bases with no outs.
 
Marcus Cline was up next and was first pitch swinging and brought home Milwaukee's first run on a groundout. Mark Connelly followed with a clean single into centerfield to plate Milwaukee's second run before Aaron Chapman tied the game with Milwaukee's fourth hit of the inning.
 
UIC regained the lead in the bottom of the third with one run before Nick Gilhaus became the fourth Milwaukee pitcher of the afternoon and slammed the door including a play at the plate that Gilhaus tagged the third out of the inning after the ball trickled away from Thelen.
 
Thelen was the second batter in the top of the fourth and pulled the ball deep down the left field line to knot the game at four.
 
Gilhaus pitched his way through the fourth, followed by a scoreless 1 2/3 innings from Sam Mathews. Adrian Montilva made his Panther debut and retired the last batter of the sixth.
 
Curtis Sheahan came on and retired the lone batter he faced in the seventh before handing the ball off to Keagon Kaufmann, who got the final two outs of the seventh.
 
Milwaukee got the first two runners on in the eighth as Connelly and Chapman reached on singles, but the Panthers were unable to break the deadlock.
 
UIC rallied for four runs on four hits as the Panthers needed three pitchers to get through the eighth. Milwaukee got another leadoff single in the ninth by Thelen but were unable to make any noise as the Flames hung on for the win.
 
Milwaukee (7-7) heads into conference play on Friday, when the Panthers take on Northern Kentucky on March 17 with first pitch slated for 1:00 p.m. CT.