CHICAGO -- For the sixth time in program history, and the second time in three seasons, UIC has earned a spot in the NCAA Baseball Championship and the Flames open the tournament at the Louisville Regional on Friday, May 31 at 5 p.m. CT.

UIC (29-21) will take on the regional's top seed, and the seventh overall seed, Louisville (43-15) in the opener at Jim Patterson Stadium. It will be the first-ever meeting between the Flames and Cardinals. That game follows a matchup between No. 2 Indiana (36-21) and No. 3 Illinois State (34-24). Indiana is coached by former Wright State head coach and player Jeff Mercer, while the Flames faced Illinois State twice in 2019 with each team winning on its home field.

UIC secured their spot in Louisville by winning the Horizon League Championship last weekend. Second-seeded UIC slugged its way past No. 3 Milwaukee, 18-10, in its opener before taking down the top-seeded hosts, Wright State, 11-6 in 10 innings. That victory set up a rematch with the Panthers on Saturday and after falling behind by three runs in the early going, the Flames prevailed 6-5. Freshman Ryan Hampe homered twice in the championship game, including the game-winning blast in the seventh inning, en route to claiming tournament MVP honors.

PITCHING PROWESS

• The Flames lead the Horizon League and rank 26^th nationally with a 3.68 ERA in 2019. No other team in UIC's conference owns an ERA below 4.31 through the end of the conference tournament.
• UIC's team ERA through 29 conference games - 3.49  - was also the League's best mark.
• The Flames enter the week ranked 30^th nationally in walks/9.0 IP (3.32) and 39^th in WHIP (1.32).
• UIC is one of seven NCAA teams to rank in the top 30 in the country in ERA in each of the past three seasons.
• The exclusive group also includes: UCLA, Oregon State, Stanford, Texas A&M, Michigan and Friday's NCAA Regional opponent, Louisville.
• Head coach Mike Dee's team finished third overall in the NCAA in ERA in 2018 (2.98), after ranking second in 2017 (2.65).

SIX IS A MAGIC NUMBER

• UIC is 22-0 this season when scoring at least six runs, and 7-21 when held to five runs or fewer.
• The Flames were 14-0 in the 2019 regular season when scoring at least six times against Horizon League opponents.
• The offense erupted for 10+ runs in seven conference games, and it scored at least 20 runs twice against League foes. UIC scored 21 runs in a 15-run victory at Milwaukee on March 30, and scored 20 times in a 16-run triumph over Northern Kentucky in the regular season finale on May 18.
• UIC's longest winning streak of the season so far has been six games. The Flames defeated Youngstown State (1), Northern Illinois (1), Northern Kentucky (3) and Illinois State (1) between April 7-16.

OH MY, OTA

• Despite the fact that the Horizon League coaches voted him onto the All-League Second Team, Scott Ota has been one of the most productive hitters in the country in 2019.
• The senior set UIC's single-season home run record (19) and hit more home runs in a year than any Horizon League player since 2000, when Cleveland State's Jeff Haase hit 22 and teammate Keith Lillash had 19.
• Ota ranks ninth in the NCAA in slugging percentage through May 26 at a clip of .746. He's the first Horizon League hitter inside the top-10 nationally in slugging percentage since CSU's Lillash (5^th) and Haase (7^th) in 2000.
• Ota enters the NCAA Tournament ranked 11^th nationally in home runs per game (0.38), 13^th in RBI per game (1.24) and 25^th in total bases (144).
• The Foster City, Calif., native slashed .398/.489/.841 in 29 Horizon League games this spring. He also led the conference in both home runs (13) and RBI (37) in League play.
• The right fielder hit safely in 27 of 29 conference games and in 47 of 50 overall.
• He leads the team with 20 multi-hit games and 18 multi-RBI games.
• Ota homered twice in a game on three occasions doing so at Milwaukee (March 29), vs. Northern Kentucky (April 12) and vs. Illinois State (April 16). In the game against NKU, he had a career-high seven RBI. The following day he tied a career-high with four hits against the Norse.
• He posted the team's longest hitting streak (20) and on-base streak (29) during the current season. The hitting streak was the longest for any UIC player since Jason Ganek ended the 2010 season on a 20-game stretch with at least one hit.
• Ota was named Horizon League Batter of the Week three times this spring to take his career total to seven. No other player in Horizon League history has won as many Batter of the Week accolades. Pitcher Chris Andrzejak of Detroit is the only hurler to win seven weekly honors.

WHERE OTA RANKS AT UIC

• In the Horizon League Championship game against Milwaukee on May 25, Scott Ota's RBI single in the fifth inning drove in the 161^st run of his career to set the new all-time record.
• Ota hit his 19^th home run of the season at Northern Kentucky on May 18 to set the program's single season record for long balls. He ranks second in UIC history with 32 career home runs. Frank Provenzano is the all-time leader with 41.
• He is second all-time with 16 triples, one behind leader Steve McGuiggan. Ota is eighth with 43 career doubles.
• Ota is sixth with 228 hits. With a productive week, he could move up to fifth place, where Andy Leonard sits with 230.
• He is ninth all-time with 153 runs scored. Curtis Granderson is the program's all-time leader with 178.
• Ota's 757 at-bats entering the NCAA Tournament rank fourth all-time at UIC.
• As far as additional single-season records go, Ota is tied with Larry Rubin (1990) and Chris Rutta (2010) for fourth with 62 RBI. Jeff Boehm is the single-season leader with 67 in 2015.
• He has scored 53 runs, which places him tied for eighth place.

CLOSING TIME

• Redshirt senior Alex Padilla was named the Horizon League Relief Pitcher of the Year for the second time in three seasons.
• Padilla owns the conference's best ERA at 0.90 and he led the Horizon League by finishing 25 games for the Flames.
• The Chicagoan appeared in a team-high 26 contests and converted all seven save opportunities he received, including one that spanned 1.2 innings in the Horizon League Championship game against Milwaukee (May 25).
• He registered his first win of the year and threw a season-high 2.2 IP in the conference tournament at Wright State on May 24. Padilla was named to the Horizon League All-Tournament Team as he went 1-0 with one save in 4.1 scoreless IP last week.
• Padilla has struck out 27 batters in 30.0 innings of work and registered multiple strikeouts in nine of his outings.
• He has allowed only three earned runs in 2019, and only one since March 16 against Oakland.
• Opponents are batting .115 against Padilla during the season. He's allowed 11 hits this year, only one of which has gone for extra bases. Oakland's Blake Griffith doubled on March 16, but Padilla still earned his first save of the season in that game.
• He is the second pitcher in Horizon League history to earn this award multiple times, joining Wright State's Andrew Elliott (2014 and 2015). He is only the fourth player to win multiple Horizon League specialty awards. In addition to Padilla and Elliott, Butler's Justin Beasley was the Player of the Year in 1996 and 1998, while Padilla's former UIC teammate, Jake Dahlberg, was the Pitcher of the Year in 2015 and 2017.
• Padilla was a National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) All-America Third Team selection in 2017. He ranks second in program history with 25 saves, five behind the all-time leader Brett Davis.

HAMMERIN' HAMPE

• UIC freshman Ryan Hampe is batting a team-high .369 and earned All-Horizon League First Team honors as a designated hitter, and also a spot on the All-Freshman Team.
• The newcomer was named MVP of the Horizon League Tournament after batting .429/.438/1.143 with a double, three home runs and eight RBI in three games. He homered twice in the Championship game against Milwaukee (May 25), with the second serving as the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh. He had three hits and a career-high four RBI against the Panthers.
• The New Lenox, Ill., native owns the second-best batting average among all first-year players around the country.
• He hit .389 in League play and ranked fifth in the conference with 13 doubles. Ten of his two-base hits came against Horizon League opponents.
• The fabulous freshman leads the conference with six sacrifice flies and he is the team's toughest hitter to strikeout, going down only once every 8.9 at-bats.
• A catcher by trade, Hampe started as the designated hitter 36 times and five times behind the plate. To protect Scott Ota, he was inserted into the cleanup spot a team-high 31 times, with UIC winning 21 of those contests.
• Hampe ranks second on the team behind Ota in RBI (47), slugging percentage (.550), hits (59), multi-hit games (17) and multi-RBI games (14).

KEY TO SUCCESS

• Junior Jacob Key became the third different UIC hurler to be named the Horizon League Pitcher of the Year in as many seasons on May 21.
• The right-hander boasted a 3.12 ERA during the regular season, 11^th-best in the conference and tops among all throwers with at least four starts.
• Key has tossed a League-best 100.2 innings and ranks third with 87 strikeouts. Opponents are hitting .244 against the junior in 15 starts.
• The Murfreesboro, Tenn., native tied for the League lead with 64 Ks in conference play, including 23 that went down looking.
• He won the Horizon League Pitcher of the Week Award twice (March 12 and May 6).
• Key has made nine quality starts and six have come against conference foes.
• Earlier this month Key, who has a 3.95 GPA, was named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District Team for the second consecutive year.

For UIC fans traveling to Louisville, limited tickets may be available here. A free parking shuttle will run from Cardinal Stadium to the main entrance at Jim Patterson Stadium beginning one  hour prior to the first game each day and will continue until approximately 30 minutes following the completion of the final game of the day. Fans are encouraged to park for free in the Bronze Lot (enter at lot J, off Floyd Street) at Cardinal Stadium. Shuttle services will run every 5-8 minutes.