Game One HTML Box Score / Game One PDF Box Score
Game Two HTML Box Score / Game Two PDF Box Score

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Lewis baseball split a doubleheader at UIS on Wednesday afternoon. The Prairie Stars won the opener 9-6 while Lewis responded with an 8-7 victory in game two. While Lewis and UIS are both members of the Great Lakes Valley Conference, the games were played as non-conference games.
 
Things started great for the Flyers in game two. Lewis scored three runs in the first inning and chased the UIS starter before he earned a single out. The Flyers scored the three runs without a single multi-base hit. Lewis made it 4-0 in the second when freshman Anthony Baldassano (Woodridge, Ill./Nazareth) (Woodridge, Ill./Nazareth) scored on a two-out wild pitch. Lewis put another three spot on the board in the third. The big hit in the inning was a two-RBI triple by junior Brian Norwood (Medinah, Ill./Lake Park) (Medinah, Ill./Lake Park). Norwood came around on a single by Baldassano to make it 7-0.
 
All this went on while Lewis starter Phil Warner (South Elgin, Ill./St. Charles North) (South Elgin, Ill./St. Charles North) was cruising. He allowed no runs, no walks and three hits while recording five strikeouts in five innings. He was lifted to start the sixth and that's when things got rocky. Back-to-back Lewis relievers allowed seven straight UIS batters to reach base. Junior Matt Frahm (McLean, Ill./Olympia) (Olympia, Ill./Olympia) was brought in and while got Lewis out of the inning four batters later; all seven of the Prairie Stars to reach base had come around to score and tie the game up.
 
The seven run sixth meant Warner couldn't earn his first collegiate victory in his first collegiate start. While he didn't get the decision Warner stays nearly unhittable in 2012. In his five appearances, he has allowed only four hits and hasn't walked a batter in 10.0 innings
 
Lewis didn't let the shock of giving up a seven-run lead get them too down as senior Andrew Brauer (Bolingbrook, Ill./Montini) (Bolingbrook, Ill./Montini/College of DuPage) singled to start the seventh. He stole second but after back-to-back strikeouts it looked like he may be stranded in scoring position. Then stepped to the plate senior Mike Wido (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove North). Wido  singled to score Brauer and give Lewis an 8-7 lead.
 
Frahm pitched a 1-2-3 seventh to earn the win and move his record to 2-1.
 
Norwood finished game two with three runs knocked in. Brauer had three hits, two runs scored and an RBI.
 
“Phil pitched extremely well,” Lewis head coach Tim McDonough said. “Mike had the big two out hit that we needed.”
 
The win in game two came after a three-run setback in game one. Lewis put a run on the board in their half of the first, only to see UIS score four in the bottom of the first. Lewis came back in the second to score four runs of their own and chase the UIS starter. Senior Mike Bolling (Chicago, Ill./Guerin Prep) (Chicago, Ill./Guerin Prep/Triton), who scored Lewis' run in the first inning, knocked in a pair of runs in the second with a bases loaded single. Sophomore Drew Buddle (Bartlett, Ill./South Elgin) (Bartlett, Ill./South Elgin) scored to tie it at four, before Brauer knocked in Bolling to make it 5-4. It would be Lewis' final lead of the game as UIS scored five runs in the bottom of the third.
 
Lewis plated one in the fifth but also left two runners on. The Flyers left one on in the sixth and two in the seventh to end the game.
 
Senior Michael Schroeder (Crown Point, Ind./North Newton) (Crown Point, Ind./North Newton/Triton) took the loss for the Flyers. He allowed seven runs (four earned) in 2.0 innings. His record is now 1-1.
 
“We did not play well today and we are going to have to play much better this weekend,” McDonough said.
 
UIS is now 5-11. Lewis is 10-4. The Flyers welcome Missouri S&T to Romeoville on Saturday for the 2012 home opener. The doubleheader will start at noon.