CHICAGO -- With three games remaining on the regular-season schedule, the UIC Flames travel to Highland Heights, Ky., this weekend, for a series at Northern Kentucky that begins on Thursday, May 16 and continues through Saturday afternoon.

The Flames (24-20, 16-10 Horizon League) will begin the weekend with a chance to capture the Horizon League regular season championship. To do so, UIC would need to win all three games against the Norse (13-38, 11-16 Horizon League) and get some help. If Wright State (38-15, 19-8) drops all three of its contests against Oakland (11-33, 9-15), then the Flames would claim at least a share of the regular-season title and earn the right to host the Horizon League Championship at Granderson Stadium, May 22-25.

As it stands, UIC is tied with Milwaukee (30-18-1, 16-10 Horizon League) for second place in the conference standings. Both teams are 16-10 in League play this spring, however the Flames hold the tiebreaker over the Panthers by virtue of a 4-1 head-to-head record in 2019. UIC cannot finish lower than third regardless of any potential outcomes this weekend. Milwaukee plays its final three games regular-season games at Youngstown State (12-38, 6-18 Horizon League).

The last time the Flames and Norse got together, UIC won all three games at Granderson Stadium over a two-day span in mid-April. In the first game, UIC led 3-2 entering the bottom of the fifth inning when the offense erupted for nine runs to blow the contest wide open en route to a 16-2 victory. Scott Ota was the catalyst offensively with a grand slam and a three-run home run to collect a career-high seven RBI. The teams got together on April 13 with the Flames winning by scores of 11-7 and 6-1. Patrick Martin pitched in the finale and tallied a season-high six strikeouts and he went on to win Horizon League Pitcher of the Week honors for his effort.

In the three games against NKU in April, UIC batted .340 as a team with a staff ERA of 2.67. Ryan Hampe batted .667 (8-for-12) with four doubles and six RBI, while Ota hit .571 (8-for-14) with two doubles, a triple, two home runs and 13 RBI. The pair combined to score 10 of the team's 33 runs in the series.

Ota and Hampe find themselves not only among the leaders in the Horizon League in several offensive categories, but among the best in the NCAA. Ota ranks seventh in the country in slugging percentage at a clip of .765 and the senior is 11^th in the NCAA with 18 home runs, a number that matches UIC's single-season record. He is 13^th nationally with 1.25 RBI per game and 22^nd with 130 total bases.



Nationally, Hampe ranks 48^th among all players, and second among freshmen, in batting average with a clip of .376. He is also one of the toughest players to strikeout, going down once every 10.2 at-bats, which ranks 67^th in the NCAA entering the weekend. Another of UIC's offensive weapons, infielder David Becker, is 14^th in the country with 11 sacrifice bunts. He is also second on the team with three home runs.

The Flames expect to send the starting pitcher with the League's lowest ERA, Jacob Key, to the mound on Thursday in the series opener. Key has a mark of 2.92 that ranks eighth overall in the Horizon League and first among pitchers with at least 30.0 innings pitched. He leads the conference with 89.1 IP and ranks second with 79 strikeouts, including 27 batters caught looking.

UIC's bullpen owns the top three individual ERA numbers in the Horizon League. Closer Alex Padilla tops the list at 1.14, followed by left-handers Mark McCabe (1.32) and Sam Menegat (1.37). Fred Gosbeth ranks 10^th in the conference with an ERA of 3.03, giving the Flames five of the top-10 marks. UIC has a staff ERA of 3.54, which leads the Horizon League and ranks 18^th in the NCAA. The Flames are one of only five NCAA clubs to rank in the top 20 in ERA in each of the last three seasons. Te group also includes: UCLA, Oregon State, Texas A&M and Stanford.

Probable Pitching Matchups (UIC vs. NKU)
Thursday: RHP Jacob Key (6-6, 2.92 ERA) vs. LHP Sam Williams (4-8, 7.64 ERA)
Friday: RHP Joey Fredrickson (5-5, 4.29 ERA) vs. RHP Kyle Service (1-6, 7.27 ERA)
Saturday: LHP Patrick Martin (2-4, 4.10 ERA) vs. TBA