Baseball Rallies to Advance to Championship Game with 7-6 Win Over UIC

Friday, May 22

Lorain, OH

7:00 PM

Wright State University

32-27

UIC

27-22

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Wright State	1	0	0	0	0	0	5	1	0	7	11	1
UIC	3	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	10	1

Baseball Rallies to Advance to Championship Game with 7-6 Win Over UIC

5/22/2009 12:00:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: WSU Athletic Media Relations

With only nine outs left in their semifinal game of the 2009 Horizon League Championships, the Wright State baseball team rallied from a 6-1 deficit to claim a 7-6 victory over top-seeded UIC to advance to the Championship game at Pipe Yard Stadium on Saturday. Freshman Garrett Gray plated the game winning run with a single in the eighth and the Raiders bullpen tossed six scoreless innings to help secure the win over the Flames.

The Raiders struck first when Aaron Fields doubled with one out in the frame, moved to second on a passed ball and scored on a Jeff Mercer sacrifice fly to right field.

UIC would take control of the game with three runs in the first inning against Woytek, then added a pair of unearned runs in the second and a single run in the third to race out to the 6-1 lead.

After Woytek exited the contest, the Wright State bullpen went to work with six innings of scoreless relief and allowed only two hits the rest of the way. LaMar would allow only a single in the sixth and Schum would allow only a ninth inning single to give the WSU offense the chance they needed late in the game.

With only nine outs remaining, and Horizon League pitcher of the Year Adam Worthington on the mound, WSU would mount its comeback as the first six batters would reach base to start the seventh inning. Gray and R.J. Gundolff each drove in RBI's to start the seventh, while Fields doubled to plate a pair of runs and pull WSU within one at 6-5. Mercer stepped in and ground out to the shortstop, plating Gundolff from third to knot the game at 6-6.

“I am very proud of our players,” said head coach Rob Cooper. “They didn't give up, even early on, they had quality at-bats and kept battling to get us back into the game and gave us a chance to win in the end.”

In the eighth, Gray struck again after Ryan Ashe doubled to start the frame. The freshman catcher singled through the left side and Ashe crossed the plate for the first career game winning RBI for Gray.

Schum retired the first seven batters he faced, before Nathan Orf collected a single – his fifth hit of the game – to start the ninth. After a sacrifice bunt moved Orf to second, Schum got a diving stop by Cate to erase the next batter and Gundolff made the final out on a ground ball to help the Raiders advance.

Fields was three-for-five with a pair of RBI's and a run scored, while Mercer plated two more RBI's to push his season total to 73. Gray plated a pair of runs and Ashe scored two runs with a pair of hits in the contest.

The Green and Gold improve to 32-27 overall and will play the winner of the UIC/Milwaukee game at 11 am. WSU needs one win to claim their second league crown in four seasons against the winner of that contest, with the first pitch of the championship game thrown at 3:00.