UIC falls to UCLA 3-1 in NCAA baseball regional, faces re-match with Long Beach State
June 3, 2007
UCLA 3, UIC 1Box Score
Long Beach, Calif. - Gavin Brooks pitched a complete-game two-hitter as UCLA defeated UIC 3-1 to advance to the championship game of the Long Beach Regional in the 2007 NCAA Baseball Championship at Blair Field.
Brooks (6-6) entered the game with a 5.06 ERA but shut down the Flames' attack after yielding an unearned run in the bottom of the first inning. UIC's Zach Peterson (7-4) also went the distance but saw his seven-game winning streak end.
UIC grabbed an early lead after Chad Schroeder and Nick Rainwater walked to open the frame. Schroeder was thrown out trying to steal third, but Larry Gempp Jr. singled with two outs, and Rainwater came home on Alden Carrithers' throwing error.
The Bruins (32-26) scored all three of their runs in the fourth, collecting five hits in the inning. Brandon Crawford led off with a single and tooke third on Gabe Cohen's one-out hit. Will Penniall then doubled home the tying run, and Tim Stewart reached on a fielder's choice to load the bases. Justin Uribe's RBI ground out plated Cohen with the go-ahead tally, and Ryan Babineau followed with a run-scoring single.Jermaine Curtis posted the fifth hit of the inning, by Tyler Moore and Rainwater executed a perfect relay to gun down Uribe at the plate.
UIC was unable to solve Brooks, who allowed only Gempp's first-inning single and a one-out double by Schroeder in the third. He struck out seven Flames to out-duel Peterson, who scattered 14 hits and fanned a pair of Bruin hitters without a walk.
Uribe and Babineau, the Bruins' eighth and ninth hitters, each had three hits for the victors.
The Flames (35-20) move into the comeback bracket, where they must defeat host and top-seeded Long Beach State (38-19) for another shot at the Bruins. LBSU survived its first elimination contest earlier in the day, defeating Pepperdine 6-3, and meets UIC in a 5 p.m. (Eastern time) showdown. The survivor must then knock off UCLA both at 9 p.m. Sunday and again Monday evening (also at 9 p.m.) to move on to next week's super-regionals.
