Murray, Ky. – For the first time since joining the Missouri Valley Conference, No. 1 seed UIC baseball (26-27-1, 16-8 MVC) clinched a spot in the 2026 MVC Baseball Championship Series on Sunday, defeating No. 3 seed Murray State (33-26, 15-9 MVC) 6-5 in front of a packed house at Johnny Reagan Field and Taylor Family Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The Racers plated a run in the top of the first, but the Flames quickly responded in the bottom half of the inning. After junior
Lucas Smith scored on a fielder's choice, junio
r Vidal Colon drove a 1-1 pitch from Murray State's Drew Deremer into right-center field for a two-run single, scoring juniors
Jake Busson and
Thomas Curry.
UIC added an insurance run in the second inning during Curry's second at-bat of the game, as he singled to right field to score junior
Ashton Kampa from third. The Flames led 4-1 after two innings.
Murray State added another run in the third on a fielder's choice, but senior starting pitcher
Brandon Bak benefited from strong defensive play to end the inning. On an 0-2 pitch to Anthony Perritano, graduate student
Gavin Acosta made a leaping grab at third base on a line drive to prevent further damage.
After Bak completed the 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, Curry added his second insurance run of the day, when he flew out to deep right field, scoring Kampa on the sacrifice fly.
The Racers plated two more runs in the fifth and the sixth inning, thus ending Bak's day on the mound. The senior 5.2 inning of work, allowing seven hits, four earned runs, walking a pair and striking out three.
In his third at-bat of the day, Acosta would come in clutch for the Flames, taking a 1-0 pitch from Murray State's Derrick Lebron over the left field wall
for his first home run of the season, giving UIC a 6-4 lead heading into the latter half of the game.
Graduate student
Mark Eddie took over on the mound for the remainder of the game and delivered a 57-pitch outing in relief. The right-hander worked 3 1/3 innings, allowing one run on two hits while striking out one and walking two.
The Racers cut the deficit to one on a home run by Kainen Jorge in the top of the ninth, but Eddie closed the door by inducing back-to-back popups to freshman shortstop
Sean Cody to secure the victory and earn the save.
The entire play-by-play and box score can be found
here.
UP NEXT!
The rest of today's games at the conference tournament are scheduled as follows, according to
MVC Championship Central:
Game 8: No. 2 Indiana State vs. No. 4 Southern Illinois. 3 p.m. (CT)
Game 9: Winner of Game 8 vs. No. 3 Murray State, 7 p.m. (CT)
The winner of Game 9 will face the Flames on Sunday. A game time has not yet been announced. As the tournament is double elimination, a second game could follow later in the day if necessary.
All games will stream on The Valley on ESPN or ESPN+, with live stats available at UICFlames.com.
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