April 18, 2008
Box Score
Valparaiso, Ind.- The pitching wasn't pretty and the runs were aplenty in the first game of Friday's doubleheader between the UIC baseball team and Valparaiso, as the Flames outlasted the Crusaders in a 14-12 offensive affair at Emory G. Bauer Field.
UIC (21-13, 10-3 Horizon League) and Valpo (10-22, 3-6) combined for 26 runs and 30 hits, with all but one of those runs scoring during the game's first six innings.
Tony Altavilla was 4-for-6 and fell a triple short of the cycle. Altavilla and Kevin Coddington each hit their first Division I home runs while driving in three runs apiece.
The Flames had led on two different occasions early, only to see the Crusaders answer each time by taking leads of their own. A four-run Valpo fifth gave the hosts an 8-7 advantage.
That's when UIC burst for six runs in the top of the sixth. Steve McGuiggan and Jake Carr sandwiched a walk to Ty Rubio with doubles that tied the game, and Brett Schaefer knocked in the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly.
Coddington followed by launching Andy Parker's 0-1 offering over the left field wall for a two-run shot, and Altavilla mashed a ball that landed in the vicinity of Coddington's homer for back-to-back UIC jacks.
Jason Ganek's RBI double capped the sixth-inning scoring for the Flames.
It appeared that Valparaiso would respond one more time in its half of the sixth, scoring four times to get within a run of the Flames before Adam Worthington came on in relief to induce an inning-ending groundout that stopped the bleeding.
UIC added an insurance tally in the ninth on Coddington's sacrifice fly.
Worthington completed the last three innings of the game to earn his fourth save.
Each team had a run batted in on sacrifice fly double plays in Friday's twinbill opener.
