June 8, 2015 The 2015-16 academic year begins in 77 days and UICFlames.com counts down the Top 25 Flames over the summer months (June 8-July 31). Each sport will be featured over eight weeks as we preview the upcoming year in UIC Athletics.

In this installment of `Top 25 Flames for 2015-16', we will be looking at baseball's ace, junior Jake Dahlberg. Dahlberg amassed an impressive 8-2 record on a 3.20 ERA and became the fifth Horizon League Pitcher of the Year recipient at UIC. The 6-foot-1 lefty was one of just three league players to record eight wins.

For the 2016 season, Dahlberg and the Flames look build off their 2015 Regular Season Championship. UIC earned the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament following a program-record tying 22 victories. The Flames won nine of their ten league series' last season that included back-to-back sweeps to the end year.

In the 8-5 Horizon League Quarterfinal win over Valparaiso on May 21, Dahlberg struck out a career-high nine batters over 7.2 innings. During conference play, Dahlberg dominated on the mound with a 6-1 Horizon League record. The Vancouver, Wash. native allowed three or less earned runs in nine of his ten starts.

Dahlberg, selected the Horizon League Pitcher of the Week twice, was UIC's first Pitcher of the Year honoree since Adam Worthington in 2009. He showed tremendous durability as he led the conference in innings pitched (106.0) and was one of a mere 41 players in the nation to tally four or more complete games. Dahlberg ranked second in the Horizon League with an opponent batting average of .232, while his ERA (3.31) was third and strikeout total (66) sat fourth.