CHICAGO – In advance of this week's conference championship tournament, six UIC baseball players have been named to All-Horizon League Teams. The Flames garnered a League-best four First Team honorees, while placing two more on the All-League Second Team.
 
Outfielder Bryan Rosario was named to the First Team for the second consecutive year, while catcher Cole Conn earned a First Team nod in 2022 after earning Second Team and Freshman of the Year honors in 2021. A pair of starting pitchers in their first seasons at UIC – Tyler Ingram and Nate Peterson – round out this year's All-League First Team Flames.
 


Graduate student Ryan Lin-Peistrup was named All-Horizon League Second Team at shortstop for the first time in his collegiate career. Previously, he had been named the Horizon League All-Freshman Team in 2018 and the Horizon League All-Tournament Team in 2019. Freshman first baseman Breck Nowik also earned a spot on the All-Horizon League Second Team and the conference's All-Freshman Team, as well.


 
Rosario was one of three Flames to rank in the Horizon League's top six in batting average with a mark of .324. He also ranked fourth in the conference in on-base percentage at .443, fifth in walks (30), eighth in stolen bases (12) and 10^th in hits (56). Rosario was one of two players to start all 46 games for UIC, joining reigning Horizon League Batter of the Week, Ryan Nagelbach. He has reached base safely in 16 consecutive games and in all but two contests this season (March 10 at #3 Arkansas and April 23 at Milwaukee).
 
The Hayward, Calif., native is the first UIC player to earn All-Horizon League First Team honors in back-to-back seasons since Jeff Boehm in 2014-15. Including Rosario and Boehm, only eight players in program history have been named All-League First Team in consecutive seasons (Zach Peterson, Larry Gempp, Jr., Bryan Russo, Jon Piazza, Jody Brown and Larry Rubin).
 
Conn was the most prolific run producer for the Flames as he posted a team high, and career best, 42 RBI. The St. Charles, Ill., native slugged .515 and batted .292 overall this spring as he ranked second on the team and eighth in the Horizon League with 14 doubles and second on the team and 10^th in the conference with eight home runs. He was 9-for-10 in stolen bases. In conference play, Conn upped his slugging percentage to .594, when drove in 29 of his 42 runs on the year. His 29 RBI tied for fourth most in League play. Conn is one of only two Horizon League baseball players to earn All-Academic Team and All-League First Team honors, joining Wright State first baseman Gehrig Anglin.
 
The catcher was named Horizon League Batter of the Week on April 26 after he batted .529 and slugged .882 with nine hits, three doubles, a home run and seven RBI against Purdue, Milwaukee and Wright State.

Two of the conference's three All-League First Team starting pitchers are in the rotation for the Flames. Tyler Ingram led UIC and ranked third in the Horizon League with a 3.79 ERA in all games and a mark of 3.70 in conference play. The righthander made 13 starts and logged 71.1 innings on the mound. Ingram went 8.0 innings three times this season, all against Horizon League foes, and the Flames won all three contests. Opponents batted .271 against him, eighth-best mark in the conference, while his 58 strikeouts ranked 10^th in the Horizon League.
 
Rounding out UIC's All-League First Team selections is newcomer Nate Peterson. The Lakeville, Minn., native led both the Flames and the entire conference with 93 strikeouts. He fanned at least eight hitters on seven occasions, including a career-high 13 on opening day at New Mexico State on Feb. 18. In his last four outings, Peterson posted 30 strikeouts to only seven walks in 23.1 innings pitched.
 
Peterson paced UIC and ranked third in the Horizon League with 80.1 innings pitched over his 13 starts, while posting the conference's fifth-best ERA at 4.15. Opponents batted only .256 against the southpaw in his inaugural campaign at UIC. He tossed the staff's lone complete game of the season, a 7-0 shutout in seven innings at Milwaukee, where he scattered six hits and struck out four in the first game of a doubleheader.
 
Peterson was named the Horizon League Pitcher of the Week in each of the season's first two weeks. After striking out 13 and allowing one run over 7.0 IP in a victory at New Mexico State on Feb. 18, Peterson surrendered one earned run in 6.2 IP with eight more strikeouts and no walks in a triumph at Cal on Feb. 25.
 
Nowik, an All-League Second Team and All-Freshman Team selection, was one of the conference's top performers throughout the year from any class. He ranked second in both slugging percentage (.586) and OPS (1.012) and third batting average (.340) in all games. Nowik led all players in the Horizon League in all three categories in conference games with marks of .687 (SLG), 1.139 (OPS) and .384 (AVG), respectively. One of the top freshmen in the entire NCAA, Nowik hit a team-high nine home runs in his first season of collegiate baseball to tie for fifth in the conference to go along with 13 doubles (t-10^th). He drove in 41 runs, seventh most in the Horizon League and scored 39 of his own to lead the Flames and rank 10^th in the Horizon League, as well.
 
Nowik was named Horizon League Batter of the Week on May 10 after he helped UIC to wins over Northwestern, Northern Kentucky and Purdue Fort Wayne. The Lake Forest, Ill., native slashed .611/.650/833, all tops on the team that week. He finished the five-game week 11-for-17 at the plate with one double, one home run and a team-leading seven RBI and 15 total bases. Nowik also drew a pair of walks while not striking out at all.
 
Lin-Peistrup batted .291 /.399/.470 for the Flames while making 37 starts and appearing in 39 games at shortstop. Entering the conference tournament, the graduate student's batting average and on-base percentage mark career highs. Lin-Peistrup has notched a career-high 12 doubles, while matching a career high with four home runs in 2022. He is 8-for-8 in stolen base attempts, with the eight thefts also marking a career high.
 
The Chicagoan ranked sixth in the Horizon League with five sacrifice bunts inn 2022 and seventh with three sacrifice flies. Lin-Peistrup is the only player in the conference to rank in the top 10 of both those statistical categories.

Seeking its third conference title in the last five seasons, the third-seeded Flames begin play at the Horizon League Championship on Wednesday, May 25 with a matchup against No. 6 Northern Kentucky. First pitch from Wright State's Nischwitz Stadium is slated for 2 p.m. CT.

2022 #HLBASE Award Winners
Player of the Year: Alec Sayre, Wright State
Pitcher of the Year: Matt Brosky, Youngstown State
Relief Pitcher of the Year: AJ Blubaugh, Milwaukee
Freshman of the Year: Brandon Nigh, Oakland
Coach of the Year: Jordon Banfield, Oakland

All-Horizon League First Team
C: Cole Conn, UIC
1B: Gehrig Anglin, Wright State
2B: Braeden O'Shaughnessy, Youngstown State
3B: Manny Vorhees, Northern Kentucky
SS: Brad Goulet, Oakland
OF: Bryan Rosario, UIC
OF: Julian Greenwell, Wright State
OF: Alec Sayre, Wright State
DH/Flex: Brandon Nigh, Oakland
SP: Tyler Ingram, UIC
SP: Nate Peterson, UIC
SP: Matt Brosky, Youngstown State
RP: AJ Blubaugh, Milwaukee

All-Horizon League Second Team
C: Cade Fitzpatrick, Purdue Fort Wayne
1B: Breck Nowik, UIC
2B: Jared Miller, Oakland
3B: Jack Lang, Purdue Fort Wayne
SS: Ryan Lin-Peistrup, UIC
OF: Luke Seidel, Milwaukee
OF: Brennan Gick, Northern Kentucky
OF: Brenton Phillips, Oakland
DH/Flex: Zane Harris, Wright State
SP: Riley Frey, Milwaukee
SP: Jake Shirk, Wright State
SP: Alex Theis, Wright State
RP: Jay Luikart, Wright State

Horizon League All-Freshman Team (alphabetical by school)
Justin Hausser, Milwaukee
Brandon Nigh, Oakland
Rex Stills, Purdue Fort Wayne
Breck Nowik, UIC
Sebastian Gongora, Wright State
Andrew Patrick, Wright State
Justin Riemer, Wright State