Feb. 26, 2011
Box Score
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Less than 24 hours after a game-winning ninth-inning rally to clinch its first win of the season, the UIC baseball team stumbled at Kentucky on Saturday afternoon, falling at Cliff Hagan Stadium, 13-3.
The Flames (1-5) mustered only eight hits on the afternoon, while the pitching staff was roughed up, allowing 13 runs on 19 hits in the ballgame to the Wildcats (3-4). UIC committed an error, while Kentucky had two fielding miscues.
The Flames scored first on Saturday without the aid of a hit in the top of the second inning. Steve McGuiggan walked to leadoff the frame and came around to score when Kentucky starter Alex Meyer (1-0) uncorked a wild pitch with Joe Betcher at the dish to give UIC an early 1-0 lead.
The Wildcats answered right back in their half of the second when Braden Kapteyn scored on an RBI-double off the bat of center fielder Brian Adams. Kentucky took its first lead of the game with another tally in the bottom of the third inning, but the Flames tacked on two more in the top of the fourth to retake the lead, 3-2. Matt Serna walked, stole second base and moved to third and eventually scored on wild pitches from Meyer. Betcher singled and scored the go-ahead run when Harry Kammholz roped a triple to right center field.
The Wildcats had another answer, however, as they pushed across three more runs in the bottom of the fourth off UIC starter Charlie Weinberg (0-2) to take a 5-3 lead. Weinberg was lifted after 3.2 IP in favor of Matt Heaslip who worked out of that inning without any more damage on the scoreboard.
The home team busted the game open in the fifth inning, capped by a grand slam from leadoff man Taylor Black which gave Kentucky an imposing 10-3 lead. In the frame, the Wildcats scored five runs on three hits off of Heaslip, who was making his first relief appearance of the season Saturday.
Kentucky tacked on two more runs in the seventh inning and a final tally in the bottom of the eighth to permanently put the game out of reach.
Heaslip closed the game with 4.1 IP for the Flames, allowing eight runs (seven earned) on 11 hits. The Rockford, Ill. native walked a pair and struck out one.
McGuiggan, Betcher and Kammholz each recorded multi-hit performances Saturday, while Serna legged out his first extra-base hit of the season, a double.
The rubber-match of the three-game set gets underway Sunday afternoon at noon CST. Right-hander Matt Salemi will take the bump for the Flames for the second time this season. The junior allowed just one earned run over 5.0 IP in his first start of the season on Feb. 20 against Texas-Pan American.
