April 13, 2007
Box Score
Chicago, Ill. - The UIC baseball team rallied for three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to earn its ninth straight win with a 5-4 triumph over Wright State on Friday afternoon at Les Miller Field. Junior Tyler Moore's walk with the bases loaded with one out in the final frame plated the game-winning run.
Chad Schroeder and Nick Rainwater started the Flames' (15-12, 7-2) rally in the ninth by opening the frame with back-to-back walks. The Raiders (15-12, 9-5) brought in Jason Bennion out of the pen to try and stop the bleeding, but the lefty uncorked a wild pitch to push the tying runs into scoring position and then junior Mickey Pingree laced a double to left field to tie the game, 4-4.
After Larry Gempp Jr. sacrificed Pingree to third, Wright State opted to intentionally walk both Jake Carr, who had homered earlier in the game, and Ben Trotter to load the bases. Bennion was unable to relocate the strike zone, though, walking Moore to push home the winning tally.
Adam Worthington picked up the win with a scoreless 1 2/3 innings of relief work for UIC. He is now 2-1 on the year.
Bennion suffered the loss to fall to 1-1.
Carr and Gempp Jr. both hit solo home runs in the contest for the Flames. Carr broke up Raiders' starter Erich Schanz's perfect game with one out in the fifth inning with a home run, his third of the year. Gempp Jr. notched his first round-tripper of the year with a shot to left in the seventh.
The two home runs were two of the three hits allowed by Schanz, who worked seven strong innings for the Raiders. UIC starter Ryan Zink was also strong, surrendering just two runs of his own, on five hits, in six innings on the mound.
Wright State jumped out to an early 2-0 lead off Zink with a two-run homer off the bat of Ross Oeder in the top of the third inning.
Carr cut the lead to 2-1 with his homer in the fifth, but Wright State pushed its advantage back to three with a pair of unearned tallies in the top of the seventh.
Gempp Jr. cut the deficit to 4-2 in the seventh with his solo blast.
Ty Rubio, a defensive replacement into left field in the ninth inning, kept the Raiders from padding their lead, gunning down Oeder at the plate as he tried to tag from third with the bases loaded.
UIC and Wright State will continue their series with a doubleheader on Saturday at Les Miller Field starting at 1 p.m.
