CHICAGO – Playing at home for the first time this season, the UIC baseball team split a doubleheader with Northern Kentucky Sunday in the first Horizon League series of the season.
 
The Flames jumped out to an early 5-1 lead in the opener before falling late by a 7-6 margin. In the second game of the doubleheader, the two teams would head to extra innings tied at 3. With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the 10^th, Bryan Rosario delivered the walk-off single to left, lifting the Flames to the 4-3 victory.
 
Game 1 Recap
The Flames came out on fire in the first inning, with the first three batters all notching base hits to put UIC up 2-0. Clay Conn singled to lead off the inning before a Rayth Petersen double to left center brough Conn in from first. Rosario doubled the advantage to 2-0 the next at-bat with a single to right. With one out and Rosario on third, Ryan Nagelbach lifted a sac fly to left to plate Rosario and give UIC the 3-0 cushion.
 
After the Norse scored their first run of the game in the third, UIC extended the lead to 5-1 in the fourth. Cole Conn hit his second home run of the season to lead off the inning and make it 4-1 Flames before a sac fly from Joshua Figueroa brought Nagelbach in from third.
 
A three-run home run by Northern Kentucky in the fifth made it one-run game before the Norse tied it up on a sac fly in the sixth. Runs in the seventh and eighth made it 7-5 in favor of the visitors before UIC climbed within a run in the home half of the eighth.
 
With runners on the corners and one away, a Luke Picchiotti fielder's choice brough Breck Nowik in from third to make it 7-6, but the Flames were unable to pull level with Northern Kentucky in the ninth.
 
Game 2 Recap
UIC took advantage of wild Northern Kentucky pitching in the first inning to jump out to a quick 1-0 lead. Back-to-back four-pitch walks opened the inning before a bunt single loaded the bases with nobody out. A bases-loaded walk by Ryan Lin-Peistrup made it 1-0 UIC, but the Flames were unable to take further advantage of the situation.
 
Pitching took over for both teams, as it would remain a 1-0 game through the fifth inning. Northern Kentucky evened the score at 1-all in the sixth on an RBI single.
 
UIC jumped back in front with a two-run bottom of the sixth. With Lin-Peistrup on second and one away, Ryan Nagelbach delivered an RBI single to right. Nagelbach would eventually advance to third and came home to score on a wild pitch, making it 3-1 in favor of UIC.
 
An eighth-inning lead-off walk proved to be costly as the Norse homered on the next at-bat to level the score at 3-all.
 
The Flames got the winning run to third with two outs in the ninth but a Norse strikeout sent the game to extra innings.
 
Cristian Lopez worked a perfect 10^th inning, including a pair of strikeouts, to bring the UIC bats back up in the bottom of the 10^th with a chance to win it.
 
Picchiotti struck out to open the inning but made it to first after the pitch got away from the Norse backstop. A groundout moved Picchiotti to second before a UIC loaded the bases with two outs thanks to back-to-back walks. With the bases loaded, Rosario delivered the game-winning single to right to give the Flames the 4-3 victory.
 
Lopez came in to pitch the final four innings of the game to earn his second win of the season, allowing two runs on one hit while striking out five. Lopez, along with UIC's starter Tyler Ingram, combined to punch out 11 Norse batters in the contest.
 
UIC plays its first midweek game of the season on Wednesday, traveling to future conference foe Illinois State.
 
News and Notes

• Rosario shined at the plate all day, finishing a combined 6-for-9 over the two games with five singles and a triple.
• UIC pitchers combined to strike out 19 Northern Kentucky players in the doubleheader.
• Rayth Petersen and Ryan Nagelbach each extended their on-base streaks to a team-high 10 consecutive games.