The University of Illinois Springfield baseball team won a wild opening round of the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional Tournament at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Ill. The Prairie Stars defeated Drury by a 5-4 score after a walk-off error in the ninth inning.
 
UIS led 4-1 after six innings, but Drury tied the game with two runs in the seventh and one in the eighth. In the bottom of the ninth, Ruben Markham had a two-out single to left field. Chris Mathieu then hit a high fly ball to right center. The right fielder was under it but couldn't catch it, and Markham raced home with the winning run.
 
The two teams combined for just 10 hits in the game, but there were 13 walks, seven hit batters, and four errors.
 
UIS starter Justin Revels cruised through the early innings, retiring the first nine he face and having six strikeouts in that span. In the fourth, Drury had runners at the corner with one out, but the Prairie Stars caught the runner at first stealing, and then got the double play when the runner at third advanced too far off the bag.
 
In the fifth, UIS scored the first runs of the game. The first two batters reach and leadoff hitter John Sechen appeared to be bunting. He pulled the bunt back though and lined a RBI single through the hole where the shortstop would have been. The next batter, Ben Schanding, did bunt to score a second run.
 
Drury scored once in the sixth, before the Prairie Stars struck for two more in the bottom half of that inning. Markham walked to lead off the inning, followed by a single by Mathieu and a RBI single by Brandon Bannon. Mathieu later scored on a wild pitch.
 
The Panthers chased Revels in the seventh and scored two more times. In the eighth, Brock Immke entered the game with a runner on second. The runner advanced to third on a passed ball, and scored on a slowly hit ball that didn't reach the infield dirt. Immke didn't allow any more runs that inning. In the ninth, he got Drury in order, and collected a win after UIS scored in the bottom half of the inning.
 
UIS, which is now 38-15-1 on the year, will now face Wayne State on Friday at noon. The winner will advance to the Regional Championship game, while the loser will have to come back through the bottom bracket.