Top-Seed UIC Advances in Horizon League Baseball Championship

May 26, 2005

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Zach Peterson threw 7 1/3 strong innings and top-seed University of Illinois at Chicago rallied from an early three-run deficit for a 5-4 victory over fourth-seed Wright State University in Thursday's nightcap of the 2005 Horizon League Baseball Championship at Victory Field.


Peterson, who earned first-team All-League honors Tuesday, struck out five and allowed three earned runs in improving to 9-1 on the season with his eighth straight win dating back to mid-March.


With the win, UIC (36-18-1) advances to meet second-seed Youngstown State University Friday at 7 p.m. Indianapolis local time for the right to play in Saturday's championship game. Wright State (25-32) falls to the consolation bracket and will face fifth-seed Cleveland State University at 11 a.m. in a rematch of Wednesday's tournament opener won by the Raiders 5-2. Third-seed University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will await the winner of that game at 3 p.m.


After Wright State took a 3-0 lead in the top of the third inning, the Flames came back with two in the bottom half on a two-run home run to left by Shane Crowder. It was his fourth longball in the last six games and sixth of the season. UIC then took its first lead with a pair of runs in the fourth as Bart Babineaux came around on a double by Bryan Nolte and Ted Rosinki scored on a double play.


Babineaux's RBI ground out to third in the fifth scored Crowder to give the Flames a 5-3 lead. The Raiders then pulled within one in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Amin Abusaleh. After Peterson was pulled in the eighth, Jason Foster came on in relief for UIC and got ground ball double plays to end both the eighth and ninth innings for his team-leading sixth save of the season.


The Raiders scored the game's first run in the second inning on Travis Migliorini's ground out that scored Abusaleh and added two more in the third on RBI singles by Brendan Rubenstein and Brian Shoup. Rubenstein finished 3-for-4 with a walk but grounded into the game-ending double play.


Nolte went 3-for-4 for the Flames, while Crowder was 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI.


Wright State starter Ross Vagades (4-3) gave up four runs on four hits in three innings to take the loss.

Game 5123456789RHE#4 Wright State012000100--480#1 UIC00221000X--582WP-Zach Peterson (9-1)LP-Ross Vagades (4-3)S-Jason Foster (6)HR-UIC Shane Crowder (6)Time-2:39