The University of Illinois Springfield baseball team defeated Wayne State on Sunday in Detroit, Mich. and clinched the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional Tournament #2 Championship. The Prairie Stars defeated the nationally-ranked Warriors by a 6-3 margin.
 
The game was a pitching duel early on with neither team scoring for the first 4 ½ innings. Cameron Zunkel got the start for the Prairie Stars and threw a masterpiece. He allowed just five hits and no walks in five innings, and he struck out five. Zunkel's biggest threat came in the second inning when a double and single put two runners on with one out. He struck out the next two batters though to extinguish the rally.
 
In the bottom of the fifth, UIS cracked the scoreboard first. Anthony Deconcilis was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. He stole second and advanced to third on a single by Nick Mayerhofer. Asher Bradd followed with another single to score Deconcilis with the first run.
 
In the sixth, the Prairie Stars scored five times to get a comfortable lead. Zion Pettigrew led the inning off with a solo homer. That hit was his 25th homer of the season, which is a new UIS single-season record. A hit and two more hit by pitches loaded the bases for the Prairie Stars with one out. Hunter Phelps then delivered the biggest hit of the game with a single to right. The right fielder misplayed the ball, allowing three runners to score. Phelps scored the sixth run a batter later on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Mayerhofer.
 
That left it up to the UIS bullpen to close out the game. Brendan Anderson did not allow a run in the sixth, but got in a jam in the seventh. Mason Coon came in and got out of it with only two runs crossing the plate in the inning. Wayne State continued to battle and had three hits in the ninth inning. UIS's defense got a double play though for two outs. Coon then induced a groundball to Deconcilis, who threw to Pettigrew for a forceout that earned a save for Coon and gave the Prairie Stars their second regional tournament championship over their last three NCAA postseason appearances.
 
Pettigrew finished the game with three hits, Deconcilis led the squad with two runs, and Phelps drove in two runners.
 
UIS improves to 46-8 on the season. The Prairie Stars now advance to the NCAA Super Regionals next week against conference rival Quincy. That best-of-three series will determine which team advances to the NCAA Division II National Championships Tournament.