CHICAGO – Rayth Petersen hit his first home run in a Flames uniform Sunday afternoon as the UIC baseball team dropped the series finale to Valparaiso, 5-2, at Granderson Stadium.
 
The Beacons struck first with three runs in the top of the first inning before Cristian Lopez struck out the final batter to end the early threat.
 
The 3-0 advantage would hold until the bottom of third when Rayth Petersen connected on his first home run as a Flame, sending a shot down the left field line and into the UIC bullpen to make it a 3-1 game.
 
UIC continued to chip away at the Valpo lead as Breck Nowik hit a ground-rule double down the left field line to open the bottom of the fourth. Nowik moved to third on the flyout by Joshua Figueroa and came home to score on the RBI single by Ryan Lin-Peistrup to make it 3-2 in favor of the visitors.
 
Lopez settled down, not allowing a run while scattering four hits from the second through fifth innings. The Beacons were able to scratch across a single run in the top of the sixth to push the advantage back to a pair at 4-2.
 
UIC looked to pull back level with the Beacons with a little two-out magic after a single and a hit by pitch put runners on first ands second with two away, but a fielder's choice would end the threat.
 
Valpo tacked on an insurance run in the ninth to close out the 5-2 decision.
 
The Flames are back in action on Tuesday, making the quick trip to Evanston for a midweek contest at Northwestern. First pitch is set for 3 p.m.

News and Notes

• Petersen became the seventh different Flame to hit a home run this season with his blast in the third inning.
• Ryan Nagelbach and Petersen extended their on-base streaks to 16 games while Bryan Rosario pushed his hitting streak to nine consecutive games.