The University of Illinois Springfield baseball team began the MSSU Lion Classic with a 13-3 victory against the UMary Marauders.

GAME SUMMARY

• Brant Vanaman homered in the top of the 1st for the first of five-one run innings the Prairie Stars would have in the game
• Prairie Stars starting pitcher Gavin Wahlbrink earned two strikeouts in the second inning
• UIS went up 2-0 in the 3rd when Jackson Blemler scored on double by Mark Kattula
• The Marauders responded with one run in their half of the inning and left one runner stranded
• It became a 3-1 game on a sequence of a double by Drew Ezard and singles by Ivan Dahlberg and Johnny Colombo. UMary added two runs in the bottom of the inning to make it a tie-game with five innings to play
• UIS would score two runs in each of the next two innings without a response from their opponent
• The highlight of the game was the five-run 8th inning in which three walks, two singles, and a double allowed UIS to lead in scoring 10-3. The Marauders could only stop the rally and escape the inning with a pitching change
• Three runs were scored in the 9th in similar fashion in the final inning. UMary did not find a response
• Gavin Wahlbrink improved to 2-0 with the win

The Prairie Stars will continue play at the MSSU Lion Classic at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday. UIS is set to meet Minnesota State University - Mankato for the first time in program history.