CHICAGO, IL - The Cougars dropped the third and final game of the season series versus crosstown rival Illinois-Chicago on Tuesday at Granderson Stadium. The loss brought the Cougars season record versus the Flames to 1-2, and their overall record to 4-8.
It did not take the Flames long to jump ahead in the game. In the first inning, Flames right fielder Scott Ota hit a two-out solo home run off of Cougar starter Edward Kang (Taoyuan, Taiwan, Pingzhen) to give UIC an early 1-0 advantage. They added another in the 2nd, and two more in the 3rd inning. At the conclusion of the 3rd, the Flames already led 4-0.
After the 3rd, the Cougars managed to keep the Flames scoreless for the next three innings behind CSU reliever Dylan Cumming (Grand Blanc, Mich., Grand Blanc). Dylan Cumming entered to start the 4th inning and threw three scoreless frames in the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings to keep the deficit at four.
The next offense would not come until the 7th inning. After Kyle Merkel (Los Angeles, Calif.) replaced Dylan Cumming on the mound, the Flames managed to get a couple of baserunners. After a hit and a walk, Tommy Farrell hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Derrick Patrick and increase the UIC lead to 5-0.
The Cougars would eventually make a mark in the run column in the 8th inning after Jon Coss III (Richmond, Texas, Reagan) reached on an error and eventually scored on a double from Patrick Arndt (Chesterton, Ind.). The Cougars would get two more baserunners in the inning on a single from Andy Gaytan (Oak Forest, Ill.) and a walk from James Rosenhagen (Scottsdale, Ariz., Notre Dame Prep), but two strikeouts would eventually end the Cougar threat after only scoring one run.
UIC scored twice more in the 8th to increase the lead to 7-1, and that would be more than enough to secure the win as the Green and White went down scoreless in the 9th to end the game.
Patrick Arndt (Chesterton, Ind.) was among the hitting notables, going 1-for-1 with a double and an RBI. Dylan Cumming (Grand Blanc, Mich., Grand Blanc) had a good day of his own on the mound, tossing three innings of shutout ball and striking out five.
Next Up
The Cougars will look to get back in the win column this weekend when they will take on Atlantic-10 opponent Saint Louis in a three game series with game one scheduled for Friday at 3 p.m. CT.
