CHICAGO – Following a largely successful stint at the Andre Dawson Classic in New Orleans, two members of the UIC baseball team claimed weekly Horizon League awards, the conference announced Monday, Feb. 19. Senior Ryan Campbell was named the Pitcher of the Week and junior Scott Ota was tabbed as the League's Batter of the Week.
 

After working primarily in relief in 2017, Campbell set the tone on the mound in 2018 with an excellent effort in the season-opening game on Friday, Feb. 16. The Carmel, Ind., native threw a career-high 7.0 shutout innings against the Southern University Jaguars in which he scattered just three hits. Campbell struck out five and did not walk a Jaguar as he helped the Flames to a 3-0 victory. It was the first time that UIC shut out its first opponent of the season since blanking No. 24 Texas A&M, 2-0, on Feb. 15, 2013.
 
 
Ota was a powerful presence in the middle of the lineup for the Flames all weekend long. The junior batted .429 on the weekend with six hits, including three that went for extra bases. He slugged a team-high .857 and drove in five RBI, while leading UIC with 12 total bases and five runs scored.
 
Ota got on base four times for the Flames in the season opener against Southern, collecting two hits, including a triple, and walking twice. He also scored a run in UIC's extra-inning loss at New Orleans on Friday evening. During UIC's memorable ninth-inning rally on MLB Network Friday, Ota's two-run single broke a 4-4 tie in the top of the ninth, and it helped the Flames score eight times in that frame to top Southern once again, this time 9-5. In the Andre Dawson Classic finale, the Foster City, Calif., native doubled and hit his first home run of the season to help UIC score a season-high 10 runs to blow past Prairie View A&M, 10-7.
 
It is the third time in his career that Ota has been named the Batter of the Week, while Campbell has been acknowledged for the first time. Ota's previous recognitions came on March 27, 2017 and April 11, 2016.
 
Campbell, Ota and the rest of the UIC Flames will travel next to Edinburg, Texas, for a three-game series at UTRGV. The set begins on Friday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. CT.