CHICAGO -- UIC will complete the first half of its Horizon League schedule this weekend when it hosts the Northern Kentucky Norse for a three-game series at Granderson Stadium on Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13. The teams will play a single game on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m., followed by a doubleheader Saturday beginning at noon.

With one weekend remaining in the first half of the conference slate, UIC (13-13, 7-4 Horizon League) sits alone atop the Horizon League standings. The Flames dropped two-of-three at Youngstown State last weekend, but remain a half-game in front of Wright State, which was topped by Northern Kentucky (8-24, 6-6 Horizon League) twice last weekend. The Norse are tied with Oakland for third place entering Friday's game, while Milwaukee and Youngstown State round out the top six.

UIC is coming off an explosive offensive performance at Northern Illinois on Tuesday. The Flames hammered out a season-high 23 hits and scored 15 times in a five-run victory over the Huskies. Scott Ota registered six RBI to match a career high, Derrick Patrick set a high mark with four RBI, Matt Bottcher had a career-high five hits and he and Ryan Lin-Peistrup each scored four times on the afternoon. In conference games this season, UIC is batting a conference-best .312, while scoring 6.5 runs per game. Patrick has been especially hot as of late, and is batting .529 (9-for-17) with five RBI and six runs scored in the last four games.

Freshman Ryan Hampe owns the Horizon League's top batting average in conference play (.472) and overall (.413). Ota ranks third in Horizon League games in batting average (.404) and second in slugging percentage (.809). The senior's nine home runs on the season lead the League. Ota begins the weekend needing only six hits to reach 200 for his career in a Flames uniform.

Jacob Key is slated to get the ball to start the series for UIC on Friday afternoon. The junior is 3-1 in conference games with a 2.57 ERA and 23 strikeouts in 28.0 IP. In two starts against the Norse last season, Key was 1-0 with a 0.77 ERA in 11.2 IP. He allowed one earned run in the two games and fanned 11. Joey Fredrickson, scheduled to start the second game of the series, made one relief appearance at Northern Kentucky on April 20 in a game the Flames won, 14-5. The third member of the rotation, Patrick Martin, has never pitched against the Norse.

This will be the first Horizon League road series for Northern Kentucky and it begins a stretch of 19 consecutive road games for the Norse. NKU is 1-13 on the road this season with victory coming on March 2 at VMI.

The Norse owns a team batting average of .224 and the team scores an average of 4.0 runs per game. The staff carries an ERA of 7.81 and averages 9.0 strikeouts per 9.0 IP. Offensively, senior Will Haueter has a team-high average of .289 with nine extra-base hits and 15 RBI. Griffin Doersching is hitting.364 with four home runs and 10 RBI in Horizon League games, but just .188 overall on the year.

Probable Pitching Matchups (UIC vs. NKU)
Friday - RHP Jacob Key (4-4, 2.57 ERA) vs. LHP Sam Williams (2-6, 7.68 ERA)
Saturday (GM 1) - RHP Joey Fredrickson (3-4, 4.27 ERA) vs. RHP Kyle Service (0-3, 5.75 ERA)
Saturday (GM 2) - LHP Patrick Martin (0-2, 5.06 ERA) vs. TBD

All three games will stream on ESPN+. Jonathan Hood will call the action on Friday and Michael O'Sullivan will be in the booth on Saturday. Links are available at the top of the page.