Softball sweeps series at Detroit
Tiana Mack-Miller led the Flames with four hits versus Detroit.
The softball team (13-14, 4-2 Horizon League) secured the series sweep by defeating Detroit (2-28, 0-6 Horizon League) in a doubleheader at Buysse Ballpark. The Flames picked up a 7-2 victory in game one before taking out the Titans, 11-6, in game two.
UIC out-hit Detroit by a combined margin of 20 to 14. The Flames tallied seven doubles, one triple and two home runs. Tiana Mack-Miller led the Flames with four hits, and Kaleigh Nagle, Eleni Polites and Paige Peterson contributed three each. Mack-Miller also had six RBI.
The Flames head to Northwestern today for a 4 p.m. game, then travel to Valparaiso for a three-game series Friday and Saturday.
UIC came back from a 1-0 deficit against Detroit in the first game to score six runs in the sixth for the win. The Flames had seven walks and six hits, with Mack-Miller adding two doubles to increase her season total to 10.
Bridget Boyle pitched her fourth complete game of the season and earned her fourth win. She struck out seven, a season high, while allowing five hits and two runs. In the top of the fourth, Erica Hampton ripped her first homer of the season over the fence in right center.
The Flames broke away in the sixth with six runs. With the bases loaded and no outs, Savannah Soppet entered to pinch-hit and singled, scoring one. Dana Capocci picked up the eventual game-winning RBI as she was in to pinch-hit and hit a sacrifice fly. After Taylor Cairns walked to load the bases again, Polites and Mack-Miller hit back-to-back two-RBI doubles for the final runs of the inning.
UIC went back and forth with Detroit in the second game of the doubleheader before the Flames pulled out the win with a season-high 11 runs and 14 hits. Five players had multi-hit outings, led by Nagle with a career-best three hit performance.
Elaine Heflin received the start and went five innings to receive the win while striking out six batters. Boyle pitched the final two innings for her second save of the season after holding Detroit to one hit and no runs.
The Flames grabbed a 1-0 lead and the Titans responded with a run in the bottom of the second and the third. In the fourth, UIC went up 3-2 after Mack-Miller hit a two-RBI single with two outs and the bases loaded, but Detroit came back to tie the score at 3-3 in the bottom of the inning.
The Flames reclaimed the lead in the fifth by scoring five runs with five hits. With two outs, Peterson scored on a wild pitch, then Cairns and Mack-Miller hit a two-RBI double and two-RBI single. Three runs came across the plate for the Titans in the bottom of the fifth.
Amanda Mener led off the sixth by blasting her first-career home run over the fence in right center to give UIC a 9-6 advantage. Two more scored in the seventh as Nagle hit an RBI triple, the first of her career, and Peterson had an RBI double, her second of the game.
