After opening the season with eight home games, the University of Illinois Springfield baseball team won its first contest away from Springfield on Friday afternoon in Romeoville, Ill. The Prairie Stars defeated Lewis in game one of their GLVC series by a 5-3 margin.
 
UIS won the game with its defense which did not commit an error in the contest, and had a big outfield assist in the ninth inning. Lewis, meanwhile, had three costly errors that led to four unearned runs.
 
The first error came in the third inning when a dropped fly ball gave UIS a leadoff runner. A one-out walk put two runners on and a groundout advanced them to scoring position. Kal Youngquist then delivered a two-run double to put UIS ahead.
 
Another leadoff error led to a third Prairie Stars run in the fourth inning, and a bases loaded sacrifice fly by Austin Alderman put UIS up 5-0 midway through the game.
 
UIS starter Blake Begner cruised through the first six innings, before getting in some trouble in the seventh. The first two batters reached, opening the door for a three-run homer.
 
Cameron Zunkel entered in relief and got the final nine outs for his first save of the season. In the ninth, the Flyers put the tying runs on base with one out, and Lewis hit a single to right. The relay throw from Alderman and Brandon Bannon got the lead runner at the plate for the second out. Zunkel then struck out the final batter of the game.
 
Begner struck out eight batters in his six innings, and gave up just five hits. Zunkel had three strikeouts and allowed four hits in his scoreless outing. Offensively, Zion Pettigrew had three hits, including a double, walked once, and scored one run. Asher Bradd had two hits and one run, and Brandon Bannon had two hits. Youngquist had two RBI, and Alderman finished with a run and RBI.
 
UIS improves to 8-1 on the season. The Prairie Stars and Lewis will play a doubleheader on Saturday in Romeoville.