May 15, 2010
Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score
MILWAUKEE, Wis.- The UIC baseball team began a crucial span of four Horizon League games in two days by splitting a doubleheader with Milwaukee at the Panthers' Henry Aaron Field on Saturday.
The Flames (18-27, 11-8 Horizon League) took game one by a score of 11-7 before falling to the Panthers (26-22, 14-7 Horizon League), 10-3, in the nightcap.
UIC returns home this Sunday, May 16 to host Cleveland State in a doubleheader at Les Miller Field. First pitch for Sunday's opener is slated for 1:05 p.m.
Game 1: UIC 11, Milwaukee 7
Starter Michael Heesch celebrated his 20th birthday with a victorious six-inning outing, and UIC scored six times on a pair of big homers during a decisive fourth inning to beat Milwaukee, 11-7, in Saturday's opener.
Heesch scattered eight hits and allowed just four earned runs to get his sixth win of the year. Brad Riegler came on to toss the final three innings, allowing just a run, to get his third save of the season.
UIC trailed 3-2 heading into the top of fourth, but that's when the Flames took control.
Nathan Orf led off the frame with a double, and Chris Rutta followed by crushing a go-ahead two-run blast off of Chad Pierce just two pitches after Orf's two-bagger.
The Flames then loaded the bases with two away for Jason Ganek, who launched the first pitch he saw from Pierce to straightaway center and over the wall for a grand slam that put UIC up 8-3.
Milwaukee scored three times, including a pair of unearned runs, in the fifth to get within two, but the Flames answered with a two-spot of their own in the next half-inning. Steve McGuiggan hit a two-run triple to chase Pierce and extend the Flames' lead to four.
Each team scored a single run before the bottom of the ninth, where Riegler erased a leadoff single with a 4-6-3 double-play grounder off the bat of Paul Hoenecke and stranded another runner by inducing Sam Sivilotti's game-ending groundout.
McGuiggan went 3-for-3 with three RBI, while Ryan Boss went 3-for-5 with a pair of runs driven in.
Game 2: Milwaukee 10, UIC 3
Milwaukee broke open a one-run game with a four-run fifth and never looked back as the Flames fell 10-3 in the day's finale.
Matt Serna went 3-for-4, while Joe Betcher homered and went 2-for-4 at the dish.
Milwaukee broke a 1-1 tie in the third on Dan Buchholz's two-run homer off of Tim Suminski. After UIC cut its deficit to a run in the next half-inning on Betcher's solo shot, the Panthers padded their advantage in the fourth.
The first three Milwaukee hitters of the fourth all singled to bring in a run, and Buchholz's sacrifice fly drove in another. Ben Long's two-out RBI double and a run-scoring wild pitch two batters later capped the inning's scoring.
Cole Kraft hit a solo homer in the sixth, and after Boss hit an RBI single in the eighth to bring UIC within five, Milwaukee tacked on two more in the bottom half of that same frame to end the day's offense.
Boss and Serna each went 4-for-9 during the doubleheader.
