DAYTON, Ohio – The UIC baseball team won its second Horizon League series in a row Saturday afternoon, picking up a 6-5 victory in 10 innings over league-leading Wright State.
 
Ryan Nagelbach played hero the for the Flames in the extra inning, as his sacrifice fly drove home Breck Nowik, giving UIC the slim 6-5 lead. Tanner Shears came on in the bottom of the tenth, looking for his fourth save in five games. Nowik made the game-saving play at first, scooping the ball out of the dirt following the grounder to third.
 
The Raiders struck first in the second, scoring a trio of runs to take a 3-0 lead. UIC responded in the top of the fourth to get onto the scoreboard. Rayth Petersen singled to lead off the inning and moved to second on Nowik's single. Cole Conn followed with a single to center, driving Petersen home and moving Nowik to second. The Flames were unable to take advantage any further, as the next three batters would be retired, keeping it a 3-1 score.
 
The 3-1 score wouldn't last long, as Wright State added a single run in the home half of the fourth to make it 4-1.
 
UIC responded with a critical 4-run fifth inning to take its first lead of the day. Bobby Grimes and Ryan Lin-Peistrup reached base to open the inning and were moved to third and second, respectively, on the sacrifice bunt by Bryan Rosario. Petersen singled to third, allowing Grimes to score and advance Lin-Peistrup to third. Then, with one out in the inning, Conn delivered the big blast as his three-run shot to right put UIC in front by a 5-4 margin.
 
The one-run lead would hold until the seventh when the Raiders pulled even at 5-all. The score would remain tied at five, sending the contest into extra innings.
 
In the 10^th, Nowik walked and Conn reached on a bunt single, putting two runners on with nobody out. The pair would be sacrificed over off the bunt by Joshua Figueroa, setting the stage for Nagelbach to drive home what would be the game-winning run with the sac fly to center.
 
Shears worked around a couple of base runners in the bottom of the 10^th, inducing a grounder to end the contest, leaving runners on first and third.
 
UIC will return home for a midweek contest against Purdue on Tuesday, April 19. First pitch at Granderson Stadium is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. on ESPN+.
 
News and Notes

• Shears has now converted four saves in a five-game span. Shears picked up the save in the second and third game of UIC's series against Oakland before picking up the save in the first and third game this weekend.
• Petersen pushed his on-base streak to 23 games and his hitting streak to 10 consecutive contests.
• Conn now shares the team lead with four multi-RBI games this year. Conn has a game with 2, 3, 4 and 5+ RBI this year.