Flames ride hot bats, Zink's arm past Wright State 13-3, into title game

Box Score

May 25, 2007

UIC 13, Wright State 3
Chicago, Ill. - Top-seeded UIC advanced to the championship game of the 2007 U.S. Army Horizon League Baseball Championship, routing second seed Wright State 13-3 in the winner's-bracket final at Les Miller Field.

The host Flames (33-19 on the season) will meet the winner of Saturday's elimination contest between Wright State (35-21) and third-seed UW-Milwaukee. Those two teams meet at 11 a.m., with the winner needing to defeat UIC twice to win the title and represent the League at the NCAA Championship. UIC gets its first chance to claim the crown at 3 p.m.

Friday's highly-anticipated showdown between the team's top two teams quickly turned into a one-sided decision, as the Flames jumped on Raider starter Erich Schanz for four runs in the first inning and three in the second. Chad Schroeder started the Flames' initial outburst with a single before Nick Rainwater belted his second home run of the season over the left field fence. Tyler Moore and Ty Rubio added RBI singles as the Flames batted around to stake Ryan Zink to a 4-0 lead after one inning.

UIC used some clutch two-out hitting to add to the margin in the second. Schanz retired the first two hitters of the inning before Larry Gempp Jr. singled, and Jake Carr hit his fourth homer of the season to the opposite field. David Cales followed with his sixth round-tripper, off the left-field scoreboard for a 7-0 advantage.

Zink took over from there, holding the Raiders in check and limiting the high-powered WSU line-up to five hits through his seven innings. He was aided by several outstanding defensive plays by third baseman Rainwater and left fielder Moore, and fanned five Raiders to improve to 6-3 on the season.

The Flames continued to pour it on as Moore's two-run triple highlighted the sixth inning in which UIC scored four runs---all with two outs. Rainwater added a run-scoring double in the seventh for a 12-0 cushion.

Rainwater, Cales and Moore each drove in three runs, with Schroeder, Carr, Cales and Gempp scoring three runs apiece. Cales had four of the Flames' 19 hits, including a double and a homer, while Carr added three safeties. Brian Shoup had two hits for Wright State, and Dan Biedenharn ran his hitting streak to 23 games with a fifth-inning single.

Schanz gave up 11 runs on 16 hits in 5.2 innings in falling to 6-5 on the season. The Raiders, who scored 17 runs to defeat UW-Milwaukee in their tournament-opening victory, were shut out until scoring three runs in the ninth inning.

UIC has won the League's regular-season title in each of the last six years, but failed to claim the League Championship on three of those occasions (2001, 2002, 2004). Wright State captured the League title on its home field last year.