The University of Illinois Springfield baseball team will play for a regional championship on Saturday at Robin Roberts Stadium at 12 p.m. The No. 16 Prairie Stars advanced on Friday afternoon with a 6-5 win over No. 22 Wayne State.
 
Andrew Dean improved to 11-0 on the season on the mound, and he kept UIS in the game early on. The only run for the first five innings came on a Wayne State solo homer in the third inning. UIS hit the ball hard early on, but good fielding by Wayne State and bad luck by the Prairie Stars caused UIS to strand nine runners through five frames.
 
That changed in the top of the sixth sparked by a leadoff single by Chris Mathieu. An error and a walk loaded the bases, and Ruben Markham hit a looper that found a hole. One run scored on the hit and another came in after a fielder misplayed the hit. After the second out of the inning, Zach Speaker hit a pinch-hit homer over the right-field fence to give UIS a 5-1 advantage.
 
Dean left the game in the sixth after loading the bases with no outs. Colton Thompson came in and allowed just one of those runs to score to keep UIS up by three after six innings.
 
In the seventh, Zach Abfall was hit by a pitch, and went to second on a single by Nick Mayerhofer. John Sechen then drove in Abfall with a single to left field. That run proved to be crucial after Wayne State scored once in the eighth inning and twice in the ninth. R.D. Lutze stranded the tying run at first though for his second save of the season.
 
 
Dean finished the game going five innings and allowing four hits, while striking out three. Abfall scored twice, and Sechen had one run and one RBI. Speaker reached twice, including his big three-run homer.
 
UIS will play in the regional championship game on Saturday, needing to win just one of a possible two games for the tournament title. Action will start at noon in Springfield, Ill.