May 6, 2000

Box Score

Iowa City, Iowa - The UIC baseball team took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first and never trailed in its 9-5 victory over the University of Iowa on Saturday to win its sixth straight and improve to 26-22 for the year. The Hawkeyes fall to 17-32.

The Flames' Curtis Granderson led off the game with a walk on four straight pitches and reached second on John Rosner's sacrifice bunt. Sean McNichols then belted a double into the right center gap to score Granderson for the 1-0 lead. With Iowa shortstop Kurt Vitense out of position after faking a pickoff play at second on McNichols, Weber Bowen laced a shot to short, which would have been a routine ground ball had Vitense been in position. Instead, Bowen's shot drove in McNichols from second for the 2-0 lead.

UIC added an unearned run in the third for a 3-0 margin before the Hawkeyes were finally able to plate a pair of runs in the bottom of the third as Ian Mattiace belted a two-run home run off of Flames' starter Nick Worm.

The squads then traded a pair of runs in the fourth, with UIC's two tallies coming on Rosner's second home run of the season, a shot to left center that bounced off the top of the wall and out of the park.

The Flames then added to their lead with two more runs in the seventh and two more in the ninth en route to their 9-5 win.

Eric Duke paced UIC at the plate, going 3-for-5 with two runs scored while Rosner also sported a hot bat, going 2-for-4 with one run scored and two RBI while both hits went for extra bases with his second triple in as many days as well as his second home run of the year.

Worm, who picked up his sixth victory of the season, went eight innings for UIC and finished with totals of 13 hits, five earned runs and one walk with three strikeouts. Steve Carlson closed out the game for the Flames and sent the Hawkeyes down in order to seal the victory.

UIC will go for the sweep of the Iowa Hawkeyes on Sunday when the two squads wrap up their three-game series at 1:00 p.m.