March 23, 2001
Box Score
Chicago, Ill. - After playing its first 20 games of the season on the road, the UIC baseball team happily returned home to Les Miller Field earlier this week and picked up a 4-3 win over Concordia in the opener.
This afternoon, however, home was anything but sweet for the Flames as they dropped an 8-4 outing to the Chicago State Cougars. UIC, which went 17-2 at home last spring, falls to 5-17 while the Cougars improve to 3-11.
Chicago State jumped all over UIC in the top of the first as it plated three runs on four hits off of Flames' starter Larry Banks (Cicero, Ill./Nazareth Academy).
UIC cut into the Cougars' lead with one run of its own in the bottom of the first as Curtis Granderson (Lynwood, Ill./Thornton Fractional South), who reached on a single, scored on Weber Bowen's (Minneapolis, Minn./Blake School) double to right field.
After the Cougars got the run back in the top of the second on a home run by third baseman Nick Troy, the Flames tallied a pair of runs in the bottom half of the frame. J.P. Moran (Burlington, Wis./Westosha Central) led off the inning with a double to right and moved over to third when Kyle Robinson (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles) reached on a fielding error by CSU shortstop Chaz Perry. Moran then scored on Nelson Gord's (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Buffalo Grove) single to center while Robinson advanced to third, making it a 4-2 Chicago State lead.
Gord and Robinson then pulled off a double steal, with Gord swiping second and Robinson touching home for the Flames' third run of the game.
After the team's exchanged runs in the third and fifth innings, Chicago State put the game away for good in the seventh as it tallied three runs off of Banks and Flames' reliever Steve Carlson (Newark, Ill./Newark).
Chicago State starter Nick Gaitano picked up steam as the game went on and held UIC without a hit in the final three innings, thwarting a Flames' comeback.
Bowen and Moran paced the Flames at the plate with a pair of hits each while Banks was handed the loss, his third of the year.
