May 10, 2009
Game One Box Score | Game Two Box Score
LORAIN, Ohio- The UIC baseball team got its first look at the home of the 2009 Horizon League Baseball Championships that take place later this month, as the Flames split a doubleheader against Cleveland State at The Pipe Yard on Mother's Day.
The Flames (25-21, 16-6 Horizon League) scored eight times in the first three innings to jump all over the Vikings (18-28, 10-12 Horizon League) during an 11-2 victory in Sunday's opener. Cleveland State took a similar route to being the second meeting of the day, scoring five runs in the first two frames and limiting the UIC offense to a single tally to win 11-1.
Game One: UIC 11, Cleveland State 2
Brandon Harwell and Jason Ganek homered, and the Flames took a big early lead that they would never relinquish to defeat the host Vikings, 11-2, in Sunday's first game.
Chris Kovacevich struck out six and allowed just two runs in six innings to get the victory.
UIC scored twice in the first when runs were driven in by Brett Schaefer and Chris Rutta, and the Flames tacked on two more with one swing of Harwell's bat when the senior first baseman hit a two-out bomb to left center with Tony Altavilla on first.
The Flames blew the game open with a four-run third inning. Ganek and Andy Leonard had RBI knocks, and Harwell capped the scoring in the frame with another two-out run-scoring hit, this time a two-run single to right.
Ganek led off the seventh with a homer and hit an RBI double in the eighth.
Game Two: Cleveland State 11, UIC 1
UIC mustered just one run against Cleveland State starter Nate Dick, and the Flames' season-long five-game winning streak was snapped in an 11-1 loss in Sunday's finale.
Mike Kool allowed eight earned runs in 6.1 innings against the Vikings.
Cleveland State went up by a pair in the first on Josh Hungerman's two-run shot, and the Vikings put up three more in the next inning when Bryce Bartch hit a three-run homer.
The Flames' offense managed just one run on Steve McGuiggan's seventh-inning sacrifice fly and left eight men on base.
Dick scattered seven hits in seven innings of work for the win.
The Vikings put the game away with five unanswered runs during the seventh and eighth innings.
UIC returns to the diamond this Wednesday, May 13 against Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind.
