CHICAGO– The UIC baseball team (21-25-1, 13-6 MVC) was dominant Friday at Granderson Stadium, defeating Illinois State (30-19, 12-10 MVC) 10-2 to open its final Missouri Valley Conference three-game series, nationally televised on ESPNU.
Junior
Mason Lei and Illinois State's Michael Addari matched each other pitch-for-pitch early, giving both offenses little room to operate. Lei surrendered just one hit through his first four innings of work while recording inning-ending strikeouts looking against Eric Machej in the second and Josh Outlaw in the fourth.
The Flames would explode with four runs in the bottom of the fourth. It would start off with a bases loaded RBI single off the bat from junior
Vidal Colon, scoring
Thomas Curry. That would soon be followed by junior
Lucas Smith and freshman
Sean Cody scoring on back-to-back fielder's choices. Junior
Ashton Kampa would cap off the inning with an RBI single to give UIC a 4-0 lead entering the middle innings.
The Redbirds threatened to build momentum in the top of the fifth when Camden Karczewski led off the inning with a double. One pitch later, Eric Machej lifted a fly ball deep to right field, where junior
Alexander Wright made the catch before firing to third to cut down Karczewski attempting to advance, turning the double play. Two pitches later, Lei would get the Flames out of the fifth with an inning-ending fly out.
The Flames kept the momentum rolling with another four-run frame in the bottom of the fifth. Smith launched his third home run of the season, a two-run shot to left-center that traveled 392 feet and scored alongside Curry. Later in the inning, Wright crossed the plate on a fielder's choice before Kampa delivered his second RBI of the game with a gap double that brought home Colon.
The Redbirds had two runs come across in the top of the sixth on a defensive error before Curry would add another insurance run on a lead-off solo shot in the bottom of the inning, sending the ball 392 feet into the Redbird's bullpen to keep UIC ahead, 9-2.
After another double play turned by the Flames, Lei closed out his outing with his third inning-ending strikeout, getting Ryan Bakes to swing through a 1-2 pitch to end the seventh. He finished the night going seven innings, allowing six hits while striking out four and issuing three walks.
Flanigan added the Flames' final run in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI single to left field. In the ninth, senior
Jake Jakubowski secured the win out of the bullpen, inducing back-to-back groundouts to seal the victory.
The full play-by-play and box score can be found
here.
UP NEXT!
Senior and Alumni Day will be celebrated on Saturday with a 1:05 p.m. (CT) first pitch. It will be available to watch on the
Marquee Sports Network and available to stream on
ESPN+. The Flames will be celebrating all the alumni that have impacted the program throughout the game and honor their seniors in a post-game ceremony. Live stats will be on
UICFlames.com.
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For more information on UIC Athletics and UIC baseball, visit
UICFlames.com. Fans can also follow the Flames on social media through X (
@UIC_Baseball and
@UICFlames) and Instagram (
@uic_baseball and
@uicflames).
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