EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The UIC baseball team (19-24-1, 11-6 MVC) evened its Missouri Valley Conference series Saturday afternoon, grinding out a 2-1 road win over Evansville (17-27, 11-6 MVC) at German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium.
For the second straight game, UIC and Evansville were locked in a pitcher's duel as senior
Brandon Bak went toe-to-toe with Evansville's Tanner Graham. After surrendering his lone run in the bottom of the third, Bak settled in, allowing just two hits while striking out three as he cruised into the middle innings.
The Purple Aces threatened to add insurance in the bottom of the fourth, putting a runner on with two outs as Aaron Nehls stepped in against Bak Nehls lined a 0-2 ball toward the left-center gap, when freshman
Sean Cody made a tremendous leaping grab to end the inning and keep it a one-run game.
The Flames grabbed their first lead of the game when junior
Ashton Kampa lined a 1-0 pitch from Graham into right field, driving in juniors
James Hackett and
Vidal Colon from scoring position. UIC carried a 2-1 advantage into the later innings.
In Bak's final full inning of work, the senior came up with a highlight defensive play in the bottom of the sixth when Nehls lined a shot off his leg. Showing quick recovery, Bak tracked down the ball, beat Nehls to the bag at first, and tossed it to junior first baseman
Andrew Pyszka for the second out of the inning. Bak finished his strong outing with 6.1 innings pitched, six hits allowed, a pair of walks, one earned run and four strikeouts.
After a one-out appearance from senior
Jake Jakubowski, UIC turned to graduate student
Mark Eddie to finish the game. Eddie worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning, then opened the ninth with a swinging strikeout of Harrison Taubert before Nehls stepped in. On a 1-2 pitch, Nehls sent a shallow fly toward right center, but a diving Colon prevented extra bases for the second out with another great defensive play (18.2 % catching probability) for the Flames. Eddie then sealed the win and earned his first save of the season on the next pitch, forcing a lineout to right field from Cooper Rhodes to end the game.
The entire play-by-play and box score can be found
here.
UP NEXT!
The series finale between UIC and Evansville is set to take place tomorrow afternoon for a 1 p.m. (CT) first pitch. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ with live stats available at UICFlames.com.
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