CHICAGO – The UIC baseball team used an explosive Game 1 to split a Friday doubleheader with Northern Kentucky. The Flames plated six runs in the opening frame and never looked back, take the first game by a 13-6 margin before dropping the doubleheader finale by a 8-5 final.
 
UIC's bats connected on five home runs on the day, including a pair from Joshua Figueroa. Figueroa finished the day 5-for-7 from the plate while also drawing a pair of walks. Fred Gosbeth worked five innings of relief in the opener, allowing just one run on two hits to earn his first win of the season.
 
Game One Recap
UIC jumped all over the Norse, scoring six runs in the bottom of the first while scoring at least two runs in each of the first four innings of the seven-inning contest. With the bases loaded and one away, a sacrifice fly from Cole Conn plated the first run of the game before Thomas Norton drove in a pair with a single. Cory Moore delivered the big blast of the inning, launching his first home run of the season, a three-run shot, to center to make it a 6-0 lead.
 
A grand slam in the second by NKU helped the Norse answer with five runs, but UIC's offense quickly went back to work, scoring a pair in the home half of the second. With two away and Ryan Nagelbach on first, Figueroa hit the first of his two homers of the day to put UIC up by an 8-5 margin.
 
Starter Cristian Lopez was forced to leave after the second inning due to an injury. Gosbeth came on in relief and cruised the final five innings.
 
The third long ball of the day for the Flames came in the very next inning when Thomas Smart uncorked on a three-run bomb to push the advantage to 11-5 before the Flames tacked on two more in the fourth behind a sac fly and a run-scoring single up the middle.
 
Northern Kentucky picked up a sacrifice fly in the fifth to cap the scoring, while Gosbeth worked a clean sixth and seventh to close out the 13-6 win.
 
Game Two Recap
The Norse struck first in Game 2, manufacturing a run to take an early 1-0 lead. UIC countered to take a 2-1 lead, scoring a pair of runs in the third. Ryan Lin-Peistrup led off the inning with his first home run of the season to even the score at 1-all before Figueroa singled to center to drive home Smart.
 
Back-to-back doubles by Northern Kentucky, one being a bases clearing liner down the left field line, propelled the Norse back in front in the fourth inning with a 5-1 advantage. NKU's lead grew to 6-1 in the fifth before UIC picked up a run of its own in the bottom of the inning with Bryan Rosario's RBI single. Another Flames run came across in the sixth as Nagelbach's fielders choice drove in Lin-Peistrup.
 
The Norse tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the seventh and Figueroa homered for the second time Friday in the bottom of the ninth to pull UIC within the 8-5 final.
 
Tanner Shears came out of the bullpen for the first time this season, working the final 3.2 innings of action. Shears allowed a pair of runs while striking out five and allowing no walks.
 
Saturday's series finale is scheduled for a 12 p.m. start. With rain in the forecast for most of the day Saturday, a final determination will be made in the morning.