CHICAGO -- The UIC baseball team travels to Dayton, Ohio for the 2022 Horizon League Baseball Championship, hosted by Wright State. The tournament begins on Wednesday, May 25, and will conclude with the championship game on Saturday, May 28.

FIRST PITCH
• The Flames earned the No. 3 seed in the tournament and will face No. 6 Northern Kentucky in an opening round elimination game at 3 p.m. (CT) on Wednesday. With a win, the Flames would advance into the double-elimination portion of the bracket and would face No. 3 Oakland on Thursday
• The Flames defense has turned 42 double plays this year, tops in the Horizon League. UIC's .91 double plays turned per game leads the League and ranks 17th nationally.
• The Flames have three of the top six hitters in the Horizon League in batting average as Breck Nowik ranks third (.340), Rayth Petersen is fifth (.326) and Bryan Rosario is sixth (.324) and Rayth Petersen is ninth (.321). Nowik has the second-best batting average among all freshmen in the League.
• The 21 runs scored by UIC over Purdue Fort Wayne on May 1 are the most runs scored by any Horizon League team in any game this year while the seven doubles in the contest also rank as the highest single-game output by a League team this year.

FLAMES RAKE IN HORIZON LEAGUE HONORS
• Six Flames were recognized by the League's coaches on Tuesday, May 24, as the Horizon League announced its yearly award winners.
• Cole Conn, Bryan Rosario, Tyler Ingram and Nate Peterson were named All-League First Team while Breck Nowik and Ryan Lin-Peistrup were selected to the All-League Second Team.
• The four All-League First Team selections are the most of any Horizon League program this season.
• Rosario earned First Team accolades for the second consecutive season while Conn collects his first First Team honor after being named to the Second Team a year ago. Lin-Peistrup earns his second All-League recognition after being named to the All-Freshman Team in 2018.

1-2 PUNCH
• The tandem of All-League First Team honorees Nate Peterson and Tyler Ingram have excelled at the top of UIC's rotation.
• Ingram ranks fourth among Horizon League pitchers (min. 1.0 IP/team game) with a 3.79 ERA while Peterson ranks sixth with a 4.15 earned run average.
• Peterson leads all Horizon League pitchers in strikeouts (93) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.65).
• Another starter for the Flames, Cristian Lopez, has a team-leading five wins on the season, tied for the most in the Horizon League.
• UIC's team ERA of 5.43 is tops in the Horizon League. The Flames also lead the League in WHIP (1.57) and walks allowed per nine innings (3.54).

B1G WINS
• The Flames improved to 3-1 against Big Ten teams this year with a 13-0 win over Northwestern in seven innings on May 4.
• Earlier this year, UIC picked up a road win against Purdue (10-9) before returning home and taking down the Boilermakers by a 9-6 score on April 19.
• In UIC's 10-9 victory against the Boilermakers, ranked 16th in the country at the time, the Flames trailed 9-0 after six innings before scoring 10 runs over the final three innings to stun Purdue. 
• The win marked UIC's first win over a ranked opponent since winning 2-of-3 at then No. 7 Vanderbilt Feb. 24-26, 2017.

SMALL BALL
• UIC is one of the best teams in the Horizon League in manufacturing runs, as the Flames rank atop the League in sacrifice bunts and third in sacrifice flies.
• The Flames have recorded 41 sac bunts this year, eighth-most in Division I baseball, and have driven home 19 players via the sac fly.
• Bobby Grimes leads the team with seven sac bunts on the year while Breck Nowik (6), Clay Conn (5) and Ryan Lin-Peistrup (5) also have excelled at dropping down the bunt.

ON A STREAK
• Bryan Rosario has been a consistent presence in the Flames' lineup this year, as he is one of two Flames to have started in all 46 contests this year (along with Ryan Nagelbach). Rosario has  reached base safely in 44 of 46 games this year.
• Rayth Petersen had a streak of 31 consecutive games reaching base this season and has safely gotten on base in 42-of-46 games played this year. 
• Rosario and Breck Nowik have the team-lead in longest hitting streak of the season at 14 games each, with Nagelbach taking an active nine-game hitting streak into the tournament. Nowik has reached base safely in each of the last 21 contests entering Championship play.

NEW SKIP
• Sean McDermott became the fifth head coach in UIC baseball history this summer following the retirement of long-time head coach Mike Dee.
• No stranger to UIC, McDermott is in his 24th season with the Flames, having worked under Mike Dee during Dee's 23 years as the head coach.
• This is McDermott's first head coaching job in the Division I ranks, having previously been the head coach at Viterbo College (NAIA) for three seasons prior to joining UIC.

BIG LEAGUE FLAMES
• Three Flames have made it to the highest level and played in Major League Baseball Games.
• Curtis Granderson, a three-tim MLB All-Star, made his MLB debut on September 13, 2004 for the Detroit Tigers. The Silver Slugger Award Winners and AL leader in RBI in 2011 retired from baseball following the 2019 season after having worn a Major League uniform since 2004, playing in more than 1,950 games, including 64 in the postseason. He is a three-time All-Star with more than 330 career home runs, more than 900 RBI and more than 150 stolen bases.
• Nate Orf made his MLB debut with Milwaukee Brewers on July 2, 2018. His first career hit was a solo home run on July 4 against the Minnesota Twins. He has played 21 MLB games between the 2018 and 2020 seasons.
• Mickey McDonald became the third former Flames to reach the big leagues when he got the call on April 20 of this year. An 18th-round draft pick in 2017, McDonald appeared in four games for the Oakland Athletics.