UIC and St. Mary’s pick up Upset Wins

There was two substantial upsets on Thursday night. The biggest upset was  Illinois-Chicago scoring two runs in the top of the ninth for a 3-2 victory over the Vanderbilt Commodors. Saint Mary’s caught the Stanford Cardinal looking ahead to Texas by scoring a 6-5 victory at Sunken Diamond.

Illinois-Chicago 3 Vanderbilt 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — UIC broke a 1-1 tie with two runs in the ninth and held on to beat Vanderbilt 3-2 Thursday afternoon at Hawkins Field.

The win was the first for the Flames (1-6) on the year and snapped the Commodores (6-4) five-game win streak and handed them their first home loss of the season.

Rafael Garcia walked to lead off the ninth off of reliever Russ Brewer. Pinch hitter Tony Altavilla came in and popped up a bunt attempt on his first pitch for the first out.

Sonny Gray then came in to face Nathan Orf and struck him out on a curve ball in the dirt. The ball bounced passed catcher Aaron Westlake allowing Garcia to move to second. Gray then uncorked a wild pitch that went advanced Garcia to third. Ty Rubio followed with a walk to put runners on first and third.

Vanderbilt Recap
UIC Recap

Saint Mary’s 6 Stanford 5

Stanford, CA – The heavens finally parted and Saint Mary’s (7-2) and Stanford (2-6) got their game in. The story Thursday evening at the Sunken Diamond was the strong pitching from Kyle Barraclough and the clutch hitting from the Gael offense, who tallied five two out RBI’s. Saint Mary’s would hold on to win the game 6-5 extending the nations third longest road winning streak to four games.

Saint Mary’s didn’t take long to get on the board as junior Kyle Jensen hit a no-doubt homerun over the left field fence in the top of the first inning. Left fielder Toby Gerhart took two steps back and simply watched it after that, putting the Gaels up 1-0. Taking the ball for the Cardinal in the first inning was senior Max Fearnow (0-2), who pitched just one inning.

Taking the mound for the Gaels was freshman Kyle Barraclough (2-0); Barraclough was impressive in his Saint Mary’s debut last Tuesday, shutting down the potent Stanford lineup for five innings in his way to first collegiate win. It would have been difficult for Barraclough to repeat that performance, but the tough freshman did it anyway, going six complete, scattering four hits, giving up two runs, all earned, with three walks and eight strike outs.

St. Mary’s Recap
Stanford Recap