May 25, 2008

Box Score

Niles, Ohio- The UIC baseball team clinched its second straight Horizon League Baseball Championship with a dominant 16-3 victory over Milwaukee at Eastwood Field on Sunday.

The Flames (34-20), who won the league tourney for the fourth time in the last six years, also earned the automatic berth to the 2008 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship and will play in their fourth NCAA Regional next weekend.

UIC was relentless at the plate right from the start. The Flames churned out a season-high 22 hits, with at least one base knock in every inning, and scored nine runs in the first two frames alone.

Brett Schaefer, named the tournament's Most Valuable Player after the game, went a perfect 5-for-5 with four runs batted in on Sunday. The junior first baseman finished the championship with a .733 (11-for-15) batting average and seven RBI in four contests.

Starting pitcher Peter Ifft allowed just three runs while scattering seven hits in eight innings against Milwaukee (25-36), a team that averaged 10 runs and 15 hits in five previous tournament games this week.

The Flames started the early scoring spurt with a five-run first. Five of UIC's first seven batters got aboard via hits, a stretch capped by Brandon Harwell's two-run homer.

UIC tacked on four more in the second, thanks to Schaefer's two-run single and RBI hits by Kevin Coddington and Harwell.

Three runs in the fourth, two in the sixth and single scores in the seventh and eighth rounded out the Flames' banner offensive day.

Leadoff man Steve McGuiggan went 4-for-5 and reached base safely in five of his six trips to the dish.

Schaefer, McGuiggan, Ifft and Coddington were named to the Horizon League All-Tournament Team.

This year's league tournament crown marks the first time UIC has won the championship in back-to-back seasons.

The Flames find out their NCAA Regional destination this Monday at 11:30 a.m. Central on ESPN.