April 29, 2000

Box Score

Milwaukee, Wis. - The UIC baseball team split a pair of seven-inning outings with UW-Milwaukee on Saturday, dropping the first contest, 5-1, before coming back in the second game of the twinbill, 6-3.

UIC improved its record to 21-22 and 8-5 in the MCC, which has them in second place, while UW-Milwaukee, which moved into first place in the MCC following the win over the Flames Friday night, raised its record to 19-18 overall and 6-3 in league play.

In the first outing, the Panthers grabbed the early 1-0 lead as a walk to the game's second batter, Brett Huebner, came back to haunt UIC starter Nick Worm as Huebner stole second base and then scored on a single by Scott Gillitzer.

Worm, however, settled down nicely after that to surrender just one hit with a pair of strikeouts over the next four innings. In the fifth, though, UW-Milwaukee managed to string back-to-back singles together and then Gillitzer's fifth home run of the season put the Panthers on top 4-0.

UWM pitcher Chad Sadowski was equally stellar on the mound as he held the Flames to just six scattered hits while fanning seven. UIC, which tallied just two hits through the first five innings, finally managed to plate one run in the seventh as a leadoff walk to Bob Rosinski and then back-to-back singles by Weber Bowen and J.P. Moran scored the run.

Despite the strong effort, Worm was handed his sixth loss of the season while Sadowski picked up his fifth win of the year.

In the nightcap, UWM scored one run in the first and went up 2-0 in the third while the Flames were no-hit through the first four innings of the game before breaking out in the fifth for four runs.

Rosinski led off the UIC fifth with a walk and then a single to left by Bowen put runners on first and third. With the infield in, John Rosner's slash bunt snuck between first and second to plate one run for the Flames and then Moran's double down the left field line sent more across the plate for UIC. Joe Schicker kept the rally going as his shot to centerfield scored two more and put the Flames on top, 4-2.

UIC then padded its lead in the sixth as Rosinski reached on a fielding error by UWM second baseman Todd Grafenauer, moved to second on another miscue by Grafenauer, advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Rosner.

Moran then led off the Flames' seventh with a double and scored on a single by Curtis Granderson to put UIC up 6-2.

UWM managed to plate one more run in the bottom of the seventh after two outs as Steve Tylke scored on a double by Grafenauer.

Lefty Gene Rausch, who gave up five scattered hits while fanning six, earned the win for the Flames as he tossed six and two-thirds innings before surrendering the mound to Steve Carlson, who collected his fourth save of the year.

The two teams will wrap up their four-game series with one nine-inning outing tomorrow at noon.