SOMERS, Wis. - Junior
Max Biedrzycki (Bolingbrook, Ill.) struck out 11 batters in his first career complete game for the Prairie Stars as the University of Illinois Springfield baseball team split a doubleheader with Wisconsin-Parkside, 2-5 and 5-2, Saturday afternoon at Oberbruner Field.
Biedrzycki earned his third win of the season in game two on Saturday by allowing four hits and no earned runs while striking out 11 over the course of the game.
With the split, UIS is now 13-13 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference East Division standings.
The Prairie Stars fell behind early in the opening game of the series after the Rangers scored three runs in the bottom of the second inning.
UIS struggled to find any offense until the fourth inning. With a runner on second and one out, freshman
Michael Rothmund (Lombard, Ill.) put the Prairie Stars on the board with a RBI-single up the middle. The freshman first baseman finished the day with four hits.
Wisconsin-Parkside pushed the lead back to three with a run in the sixth before the teams traded runs in eighth as the Rangers won game one, 5-2. Junior
Christopher Irwin (Hiram, Ga.) pitched five solid innings for UIS. He gave up just three runs while striking out four. Irwin was tabbed with his fourth loss of the season.
In the second half of the doubleheader, the Prairie Stars struck first. In the top of the third, junior
John Schram (Bloomingdale, Ill.) laced a double to left field, scoring junior
Gabriel Acevedo (Portage, Ind.). The Rangers answered with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the frame to take a 2-1. The hosts took advantage of two UIS errors in the inning, the Prairie Stars' only errors of the game.
The score remained in the Ranger's favor until the fifth inning. With runners on the corners and one out for UIS, Rothmund came home to score on a passed ball to tie the game. In the same at-bat, senior
Alex Bradley (Peoria, Ill.) advanced to third on a wild pitch, setting the stage for junior catcher
Aaron Kuper (Highland, Ill.). Kuper singled up the middle to give the Prairie Stars a 3-2 lead. UIS tacked on insurance runs in the sixth and seventh innings to take game two of the series, 5-2.
The series concludes tomorrow with a doubleheader beginning at 10 a.m.
