YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Behind a gem on the mound from
Cristian Lopez, the UIC baseball team split a doubleheader with Youngstown State Friday (April 2) afternoon.
Lopez threw a complete game in the second game of the twin bill, allowing just two hits and no walks over the seven innings, while striking out four to lead the Flames to a 6-0 win. The victory came after a hard-fought extra innings battle in Game 1, which went to the Penguins by a 2-1 margin.
Game One Recap
It was a battle on the mound as
Jacob Key and Collin Floyd each allowed one hit through the first five innings of action.
Ryan Nagelbach mustered a two-out single in the sixth, but the Flames were unable to capitalize, sending the game to the eighth inning in a scoreless tie.
UIC took the lead in the extra inning behind a pair of errors by Youngstown State. With two outs in the top of the eighth,
Thomas Smart reached on a fielding error to put a runner on for UIC. Nagelbach lifted a fly ball to right that was misplayed by the defender, allowing Smart to race all the way around to score from first and put the Flames up 1-0.
In the bottom half of the inning, Youngstown State led off the inning with a single and tied the score up at 1-all with an RBI triple before walking off with a sac fly to right.
Jacob Key went the distance for the Flames, allowing three hits and a pair of runs while striking out three.
Game Two Recap
The Flames jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with a pair of runs in the first while matching their hit total from Game One in the first inning of game two with three.
Smart singled to lead off the game and advanced to third on
Matt Bottcher's double. A
Joshua Figueroa sac fly allowed Smart to score before
Cole Conn drove Bottcher home with a single to left.
The lead doubled to 4-0 with two more runs in the second, with
Bryan Rosario and
Thomas Norton registering back-to-back singles to start the frame.
Ryan Lin-Peistrup laid down a perfectly executed bunt to bring Rosario to score and Norton followed during the next at-bat, scoring on a wild pitch.
Nagelbach led off the third with a double and moved to third on Bottcher's single. The freshman would come around to score on Figueroa's RBI single to right to push the advantage to 5-0.
After Lopez surrendered a pair of singles in the first and second innings, the righty dominated the rest of the day, allowing just a pair of baserunners over the final five innings of action on a hit by pitch and a throwing error.
Smart's sacrifice fly in the sixth added an insurance run, pushing the lead to 6-0, and Lopez retired the final six batters in order to close the door. Lopez completed the seven-inning game yielding two hits and no walks while striking out four batters.
The series will wrap up with a doubleheader Saturday, with Game 1 of the doubleheader slated to start at 12 p.m. (CT).
