PEORIA, Ill. – The UIC baseball team (24-27-1, 16-8 MVC) went hit-for-hit against Bradley (11-45, 6-18 MVC) Saturday afternoon, but fell short in the series finale at Dozer Park to close out Missouri Valley Conference play.
The Braves tacked on a pair of runs in the first, but UIC responded quickly in the top of the second when junior
Vidal Colon hit an RBI sacrifice fly to score senior
Colin Husko from third base.
Senior
Kendall Lyons settled in after the opening inning and began to deal on the mound. Over his next four innings of work, backed by strong defensive play behind him, the hurler allowed just two hits and no runs across five innings as the Flames looked to regain momentum.
Freshman
Sean Cody opened the top of the sixth with a leadoff single off Bradley's Robert Sanford. The shortstop then stole his 10th base of the season to move into scoring position. Pinch-hitting graduate student
Gavin Acosta tied the game in the next at-bat, lining an 0-1 pitch into right field to score Cody from second. UIC entered the bottom of the sixth tied at 2-2.
Lyons closed out his outing in the bottom of the sixth with a swinging strikeout of Bradley's Luke Skinner before the Braves put two runners on with one out. On his final pitch, Lyons induced a ground ball to Acosta, who tagged third base and fired to first to complete an inning-ending double play. Lyons finished with six innings of work, allowing five hits and one earned run while striking out two and walking one.
The Braves pulled away with four unanswered runs in the late innings, as the Flames were unable to answer at the plate.
The entire play-by-play and box score can be found
here.
UP NEXT!
As MVC play concluded, UIC clinched sole possession of the conference regular-season title earlier in the afternoon, a feat the program has not accomplished since 2017 and its first since joining the Missouri Valley Conference. The Flames also secured the No. 1 seed and will play the lowest remaining seed at 11 a.m. (CT) Thursday, May 21, at Johnny Regan Field at Taylor Family Park in Murray, Ky.
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