Redbirds Take Down UIC 9-5
Written by Tim Zalabak on March 23, 2022
Image courtesy of goredbirds.com
Normal IL. – The Redbird baseball team played their second home game today against the University of Illinois Chicago Flames. After a 1-3 weekend against the Purdue Boilermakers, taking the first game at home, the Birds’ looked to stay undefeated at Duffy Bass Field.
Today’s matchup was moved from 5:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. to avoid inclement weather. Illinois State remained locked in for the one-game series against UIC, taking the win in convincing fashion, 9-5.
Illinois State was missing a much-needed piece of their squad against Purdue University in Ryan Cermak due to health and safety reasons. Cermak made his presence known in the afternoon bout.
A scoreless first inning from Illinois State pitcher Sean Sinisko set the tone for the Birds in the first half of the game. In his first game back, Ryan Cermak led off the bottom of the first with a home run, belted over the left-field wall. This was the first of two home runs for Cermak. His second and longest ball of the day was a no-doubter to left-center, scoring Kyle Soberano.
Holm and his team were able to keep the Flames offense on their heels by using several pitchers throughout the game. Colin Wyman cruised through three innings, giving up zero hits and no runs allowed.
UIC began to fight back in the top of the fifth with two runs of their own, courtesy of a Breck Nowik homerun.
The Redbirds quickly responded with two more runs of their own as Nick Gile blasts a two-run home run, scoring Adrian Flores and taking the wind out of the Flames’ sails.
The cold and rainy conditions were no match for the closing pitcher Jared Hart. Hart handled the Flames with ease in the final inning, striking out the final two batters and improving the Redbird’s record to 8-8.
The Birds look to keep the ball rolling into their next series against the Saint Louis Billikens beginning on Friday, March 25th.
