Missouri baseball falls to UIC in game one
One word sums up Missouri’s home opener against Illinois-Chicago best: sloppy.
The Tigers committed five errors in their 10-6 loss to the Flames, leading to four unearned runs. The uncomfortably cold weather seemed to wreck havoc on Missouri’s fielders.
UIC struck first, when Flames’ leftfielder Jon Ryan singled off of Missouri starter Matt Stites, scoring Alex De Larosa to give UIC a 1-0 lead.
The Tigers answered in the bottom of the inning, pulling ahead 2-1. Brannon Champagne led off with a walk, followed by a Blake Brown single into the hole between third and short. After a Jonah Schmidt sac bunt, sophomore second basemen Eric Garcia grounded out to second base, allowing Champagne to trot home. Dane Opel then singled in Brown, putting the Tigers ahead.
But just as soon as Missouri grabbed the lead, they quickly lost it. The Flames scored two runs in the 2nd, 4th, and 5th innings, pulling ahead 7-2. Stites left the game in the fifth inning, after giving up four earned runs, six hits, and throwing a hefty 105 pitches.
The Tigers made the game interesting in the bottom of the 6th, breaking out for four runs. An RBI single by shortstop Jesse Santos brought home two, and an error by Flames shortstop Ryan Shober plated Santos to make it 7-5. Chris Hoffman then entered the game to relieve starter Joey Begel, and quickly walked two Tigers, leading to an Andrew Thigpen RBI groundout. At the end of six innings UIC was clinging on to a 7-6 lead, and both teams were trying to survive an avalanche of errors, walks, hit-by-pitches and generally sloppy play.
The Flames pulled away in the eighth inning, scoring three runs by way of a hit, an error, a walk and a hit-by-pitch. The inning’s scoring surge seemed to epitomize the clumsiness of the game. At the end of eight, the Flames claimed a 10-6 lead.
Both teams tacked on an extra run in the 9th, with UIC winning by a final score of 11-7. The Tigers hoped to bounce back in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, scheduled to start around 4 pm CT.