CHICAGO – UIC opened its fourth Horizon League series of the season with a 5-1 victory over the Oakland Golden Grizzlies at Granderson Stadium on Friday afternoon.
 
Though the backdrop was sweet home Chicago, the Flames (19-7, 9-1 Horizon League) played as the visiting team because the series was originally slated to be contested at Oakland Baseball Field.
 
Four different UIC batters drove in a run in the victory with Rob Calabrese leading the way with two. His infield single in the third inning drove in Thomas Norton and his double in the eighth plated David Cronin. Calabrese and Cronin tallied two hits apiece.
 
On the mound, UIC's Jake Dahlberg delivered 6.1 scoreless innings in which he scattered five hits and struck out eight. Ryan Campbell relieved the senior with 1.2 scoreless innings of his own for the Flames.
 
How It Happened
Oakland had Dahlberg and UIC on the ropes in the bottom of the first. The Golden Grizzlies loaded the bases with nobody out before Cronin snared a line drive from his position at second base and beat Ben Hart to the bag for a double play. Then Dahlberg fanned Tyler Trovinger to completely squash the threat.
 
The Flames used the momentum created by their defense and turned it into a run in the top of the second. Calabrese and Ricardo Ramirez drew walks and moved up 90 feet each on Bowen Ogata's sacrifice bunt. Brandon Gibis pushed a base hit through the left side to score Calabrese for the first run of the day.
 
UIC tacked on two more tallies in the top of the third. Thomas Norton hit an infield single and Cronin notched a bunt single. Norton soon scored on an RBI infield single off the bat of Calabrese and Cronin came home when Ramirez sliced a base hit to the opposite field in right.
 
Mickey McDonald got the offense going in the fourth when he secured a single to left-center field with one away. He took second on a wild pitch and eventually stole third, his sixth swipe of the season. Cody Bohanek hit a grounder to his counterpart at shortstop, but it was deep enough to drive in McDonald and increase the lead to four runs.
 
Oakland threatened for the first time since the first inning in the bottom of the fifth. The Golden Grizzlies had runners at second and third with one out following Jordan Jackson's ground-rule double, but neither could score because Dahlberg punched out Tyler Janish and Mike McGee to finish the frame.
 
Dahlberg turned it over to Campbell with one out in the seventh. After serving up a single, Campbell got Tyler Demumbrum to hit into a 4-6-3 inning-ending double play.
 
Once again the Flames turned defense into offense with a run in the top of the eighth. Cronin walked to open the stanza and he moved up to second on a grounder off the bat of Scott Ota. The catcher Calabrese hit a rocket to left field that brought Cronin home easily and gave the Flames a 5-0 lead.
 
The Golden Grizzlies scored their lone tally of the afternoon in the bottom of the ninth. Zach Sterry was the first batter of the inning and he took the first pitch he saw and put just over the fence and into the UIC bullpen for a solo home run. Noah Masa eventually got two strikeouts and a grounder to Cronin at second to end the game.
 
Beyond the Box Score

• The Flames have won 15 of their last 16 games dating back to March 7.
• The Flames, who entered the game leading the nation in fielding percentage, played a clean defensive game. UIC has been charged with only five errors in its last 17 games and the squad is 15-2 in that span.
• The Flames entered the game with a 2.78 ERA, the 13^th-best mark in the NCAA entering play Friday. Though UIC allowed one earned run in the ninth inning, that number dipped to 2.71.
• With two hits apiece Friday, David Cronin and Rob Calabrese each extended their streaks of reaching base safely to 21 games. Cronin raised his batting average to a team-high .392 in the win.
• Both Cronin and Calabrese are batting .368 in Horizon League play to pace the Flames.
• Jake Dahlberg notched his fifth win of the season and his 19^th in a UIC uniform. That moves the senior into a tie with Jon Piazza for sixth on the program's all-time list.
• Dahlberg has notched a win in all five of his starts at Granderson Stadium this season. He is 5-0 with a 2.64 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 30.2 innings at home in 2017.
• The Flames are 10-3 in the first game of a series this season and 4-0 in the first game of each Horizon League set.

Postgame Reaction





Up Next

• The three-game series continues on Saturday, April 8 at 3:05 p.m. CT.
• UIC will send the reigning Horizon League Pitcher of the Week, Reid Birlingmair (3-1, 2,58 ERA) to the mound to make his eighth start of the season.