CHICAGO – In another well pitched contest between two of the Horizon League's fiercest rivals, Wright State escaped Granderson Stadium with a 2-1 victory on Sunday afternoon.
 
Wyatt Trautwein made his first start for the Flames (16-12, 5-7 Horizon League) and he did not disappoint. The Barrington, Ill., native threw a career-high 5.2 innings and allowed just one run on two hits.
 
The offense produced 10 hits Sunday, its most in the series, but  UIC stranded 12 runners on base as Wright State (18-11, 8-4 Horizon League) claimed the rubber match.
 
How It Happened
Trautwein cruised through the first three innings before Wright State dented the scoreboard first in the top of the fourth. With one away, Gabe Snyder hit an opposite-field home run to left. Dominic Smith read it well and climbed the wall, but the blast landed just over his outstretched glove to give the Raiders the game's first run.
 
The Flames had chances to respond in both the fifth and sixth innings, but failed to plate the equalizer. Joshua Figueroa walked to open the fifth and was on third base with two outs, but a sharp grounder off the bat of Ota to shortstop ended that threat.  In the sixth, Bowen Ogata was 90 feet from home with only one down, but Jeremy Randolph came in out of the bullpen to get a huge strikeout and another grounder to short to escape.
 
The Raiders scored a second time in the top of the eighth. WSU drew back-to-back walks to open the frame before a wild pitch put both runners in scoring position with nobody out. After Alex Padilla struck our Snyder, pinch hitter Quincy Hamilton lofted a sacrifice fly to left field that put visitors ahead 2-0.
 
UIC was close to countering in the home half of the eighth. Ota and Ogata began the rally with back-to-back base hits before Smith pushed the pair up with his second sacrifice bunt of the afternoon. Two batters later, David Becker walked to load the bases, but Derek Hendrixson got out of the jam by getting a grounder right back to the mound to end the inning.
 
Wright State had the sacks packed with one out in the ninth before Noah Masa and Charlie Cerny each collected strikeouts to strand three and keep the deficit at two runs entering the bottom of the ninth.
 
The last at-bat started well when Ryan Lin-Peistrup looped a base hit over the head of WSU shortstop Chase Slone. Thomas Norton was hit by a pitch next. Two batters later, Lin-Peistrup came around to score and Norton made third safely when Ota rifled a base hit into right-center field. With the tying run at third base, Hendrixson got a double play that ended the game.
 
Up Next

• UIC will play seven of its next eight games, and the next four in a row, away from home.
• The Flames will visit Northern Illinois on Tuesday, April 10 for a 3 p.m. game. The last time UIC played at the home of the Huskies, the visitors pounded their way to a 17-3 victory on April 11, 2017.
• UIC's next Horizon League series will take place at Milwaukee, April 13-15.