FORT WAYNE, IND. – Five Flames combined to shut out Purdue Fort Wayne Sunday (May 16) afternoon as the UIC baseball team completed it four-game sweep of the Mastodons with a 10-0 victory.
The Flames, who scored double digit runs in all four games of the series, picked up a game-high three RBIs from
Joshua Figueroa, who finished the day 3-for-3 at the plate with a walk. He was one of four Flames to register an extra base hit, as he,
Bryan Rosario,
Matt Bottcher and
Thomas Norton (twice) all had doubles Sunday afternoon.
Teague Conrad had his first collegiate start in a bullpen game for the Flames. The sophomore earned the win, throwing two scoreless innings while striking out a pair.
Tanner Shears (3 IP, 3 K),
Fred Gosbeth (2 IP, 2 K),
Nate Davis (1 IP) and
Joey Morris (1 IP) combined to limit the Mastodon offense to six hits and nine strikeouts.
UIC jumped out to an early lead, plating a pair of runs in the first inning of action. With one away,
Bryan Rosario doubled to right center before advancing to third on a balk and scoring on a wild pitch.
Joshua Figueroa walked with two away in the first and came all the way around to score on a throwing error by the Mastodon catcher.
The Flames' lead ballooned to 5-0 in the second as three more runners came home to score. A throwing error brought
Ryan Lin-Peistrup in from third, a wild pitch allowed
Sean Dee to scamper home and an RBI single by Bottcher pushed the advantage to 5-0 in favor of the visitors.
Back-to-back hits by UIC in the fourth pushed the lead to 7-0.
Thomas Smart singled with one out in the inning and moved to second on a groundout by Rosario. Bottcher doubled and Figueroa followed with a single as the Flames' lead continued to grow.
With the lead at 7-0, UIC used a three-run sixth to build its lead to 10-0. Figueroa roped a one-out double to right center to drive home Rosario and Smart before Norton followed with his second double of the day to plate Figueroa from second.
UIC will close out the regular season next weekend, hitting the road to take on Northern Kentucky in a four-game series.
