FRANKLIN, Wis. – The Milwaukee baseball team was unable to complete the three-game sweep of the Northern Kentucky Norse on Sunday afternoon at Franklin Field, as the Panthers fell to the Norse by a 3-2 score.
 
Andy Neu got the start for the Panthers and ended his outing with a career-high five strikeouts as he went 3 1/3 innings and allowed one earned run on four hits and as many walks.
 
The bullpen was once again a strength for the Panthers as Nick Gilhaus tossed 2 2/3 innings in relief of Neu and struck out two batters while scattering three hits and a walk.
 
Johnny Kelliher came on in the sixth and did not allow a hit while strikeout out one batter over 1 1/3 innings, while Mike Sullivan pitched a hitless inning with one strikeout. Curtis Sheahan closed out the game and allowed one hit while retiring the Norse with the final two outs of the ninth inning.
 
"I thought overall Andy did a pretty good job, we made an error in the first inning with two outs and it cost him about 25 pitches in the first inning with two runs," said head coach Scott Doffek. "Overall, he did a nice job and so did our bullpen to keep those guys down. Those bullpen guys came in and did a job for us and kept that number manageable for us."
 
After amassing 24 hits and 13 runs over the first two games of the series, the Panthers were only able to muster five hits with the team scoring both of its runs in the fifth inning.
 
"Situational hitting today was the problem, that was the difference in the game," added Doffek. "We had a few opportunities with guys on third and less than two outs, but we just weren't able to put a ball in play and get them in."
 
Five Panthers had hits on the day including a run-scoring triple off the bat of Marcus Cline, while Ty Olejnik had an RBI on a sacrifice fly to score Cline. Nate DeYoung walked twice and scored a run on the Cline triple.
 
Mark Connelly, Aaron Chapman, Justin Hausser all had singles, while Carson Hansen had a double as he got the start in left field for Milwaukee.
 
Neu retired the first two Norse batters to begin his afternoon, but after a double and a throwing error, Northern Kentucky scored two unearned runs to take the early lead. The Norse threatened again with two on and two down before a walk loaded the bases, but Neu stranded the bases full with a strikeout to keep the score at two.
 
In the bottom of the third, DeYoung walked on six pitches followed by Cline with a seven-pitch walk. After the next two batters were retired, Connelly singled, but DeYoung was thrown at trying to score on a close play at the plate.
 
 The Norse added what proved to be the deciding run in the top of the fourth on two hits, as Gilhaus came on to get the final two outs of the inning to strand a pair of Norse in scoring position.
 
DeYoung got the Panther rally started in the bottom of the fifth as he reached on a one-out walk, Cline launched a triple off the top of the right field fence that was just shy of clearing the fence as DeYoung scored on the play. Olejnik picked up an RBI on a sacrifice fly to chase Cline home, as Milwaukee was able to pull back within one at 3-2.
 
After Gilhaus closed out the seventh, Kelliher came on and hung up a zero in the seventh. Kelliher and Sullivan combined to keep the Norse off the board in the eighth to bring the Panthers back up to bat.
 
Jake Novak walked on four pitches to lead off the bottom of the inning before Connelly was hit by a pitch to put two on with no outs. Chapman bunted the pair into scoring position before Hausser was walked intentionally to load the bases. Northern Kentucky's third pitcher of the inning retired the final two outs via strikeout to hold the lead at 3-2.
 
Sheahan came on after Sullivan got the first out in the ninth, and allowed the first batter to reach on an infield single before a wild pitch moved the runner up to second. The third pitch of the next at bat was a bullet right back to Sheahan, who snagged the ball mid-air and doubled off the runner to bring the Panthers the chance in the ninth trailing by one.
 
Unlike the first two games of the series, the Panther bats were held in check as the Norse won by a 3-2 score on getaway day.
 
Milwaukee will be on the road on Tuesday at Northwestern beginning at 3:30 p.m., before the team hosts MSOE at 5:30 p.m. at American Family Field.