April 8, 2001
Box Score
Chicago, Ill. - The UIC softball team's drive for a sixth-straight Midwestern Collegiate Conference title hit a bump in the road on Sunday as they opened league play by splitting a doubleheader with visiting UW-Green Bay. The Flames rolled to a 4-1 win in the first game, but watched a 1-0 lead in the sixth inning of game two vanish as the Phoenix upset UIC, 2-1.
The win by UWGB (13-12, 1-3 MCC) was the first over the Flames (26-18, 1-1 MCC) since 1992 and snapped a 22-game UIC winning streak over the Phoenix. The loss was only the seventh (72-7) setback the Flames have suffered since joining the MCC in 1994.
"I thought we played fairly well today," remarked UIC Head Coach Mike McGovern. "We squandered some scoring opportunities in the second game. We did a lot of things right, but they just made a couple of plays that proved to be the difference."
In the first game, junior Edel Leyden got things going for the Flames in the third inning as she broke open a scoreless ballgame with a two-out, two-run triple down the leftfield line. Two pitches later, UIC went up 3-0 as Leyden scored on a wild pitch by UW-Green Bay starter Laura Smith. The Flames weren't done in the third, though, as Jacquelyne Vaca and Stefanie Christoferson roped back-to-back singles, setting the table for designated hitter Amanda Rivera (3-for-5, 2 2B, RBI), who plated Vaca with a double into the right-center field gap.
The score would remain 4-0 until the top of the sixth when UW-Green Bay made a little two-out noise of its own, tallying their only run of the game on a RBI single by Amy Roznowski.
UIC starter Alycia Creese, who scattered five hits in the contest while striking out two, would contain the Phoenix from there as she escaped another jam in the seventh en route to collecting her team-high 13th win of the season with the 4-1 Flames' triumph.
UIC seemed poised to break things open in its first at bat of the second game with the Phoenix, but in the end the inning just foreshadowed what would be a bitter 2-1 loss for the Flames. All in all, UIC would squander nine hits on the day as they left nine runners on base in the game.
Jennifer Tiffany opened the first inning by reaching on an error by UWGB shortstop Roznowski. She was then pushed to second on a single to right by Emily Hallman, setting up a big inning for the Flames. Leyden, who went 4-for-7 on the day with two RBI, would follow with a single up the middle, but Phoenix center fielder Connie Koceja gunned down Hallmann at the plate for the inning's first out. UW-Green Bay starter Laura Smith would then leave Flames on second and third as she got both Vaca and Christoferson to ground out to end the frame.
UIC would finally capitalize in the third inning as Hallmann scored on a sacrifice fly by Vaca.
The score would stand at 1-0 until the bottom of the sixth when UW-Green Bay rallied behind a run-scoring groundout from Roznowski and a RBI single by Erin Barnharst off Flames' starter Alison Aguilar (7-3).
Smith (10-4) then set UIC down one-two-three in the seventh for the Phoenix first win over UIC in more than a decade.
McGovern's crew will look to rebound tomorrow night as they head down to Charleston, Ill., for a non-conference doubleheader with Eastern Illinois at 5:00 p.m.
