Baseball ends road swing with win

Brandon Gibis scored a run. — Photo: Steve Woltmann

Senior Ian Lewandowski recorded his third win of the season and Trevor Lane earned his second save Sunday in a 6-3 victory at Northern Kentucky.

UIC ended its longest road swing of the season (12 games) with a 4-7 record and returns home after winning four of the last five games.

Up next for the baseball team is a three-game series against Milwaukee, with games set for 6:05 p.m. Friday, 2:05 p.m. Saturday and 1:05 p.m. Sunday at Granderson Stadium.

During Sunday’s game at Northern Kentucky, the Flames (13-17, 5-3) found themselves trailing 1-0 after one inning as Lewandowski (3-3) allowed a lead-off double and RBI groundout. The right-hander regained his composure to post his fourth quality start, allowing just two runs in six innings.

UIC evened the score at 1-1 in the second inning on an RBI single from Cody Bohanek that plated Brandon Gibis. In the fourth inning, Conor Philbin led off with a double and came around to score on a single by Alex Dee. Northern Kentucky responded with a run in the sixth to tie the game 2-2.

In the seventh inning the Flames sent nine men to the plate, scoring four times on just one hit. Bohanek led off the frame getting hit by a pitch and advanced to third on a sac bunt by Derrick Patrick and an error on the NKU third baseman. David Cronin laced an RBI double to right field, extending his streak of reaching base to 24 games and his hitting streak to 12 in a row. After an intentional walk to Ricardo Ramirez loaded the bases, the next two batters — Conor Philbin and Brandon Gibis — each drew RBI walks and Alex Dee concluded the scoring with a sac fly RBI.

Trevor Lane pitched the final three innings for the save, allowing one run on two hits. Lane stuck four of the first six batters to increase his strikeout total to 48 batters in 34 innings played.