PEORIA, Ill. – For the first time since joining the Missouri Valley Conference, the UIC baseball team (24-26-1, 16-7 MVC) has clinched a share of the 2026 MVC regular season title after defeating Bradley (10-45, 5-18 MVC) 11-4 at Dozer Park Friday night.
With tonight's victory and other results around the Valley, the Flames clinch at least a share of their first conference regular season title since 2017 when they were in the Horizon League.
The Flames struck early in the top of the first. After junior
Ashton Kampa scored on a fielder's choice, junior
Jake Busson launched his 17th home run of the season with a solo shot over the left-center-field wall and onto the outfield concourse, giving UIC an early 2-0 lead.
Bradley got on the board in the second inning and again threatened in the third with two runners in scoring position, but senior Brandon Bak ended the inning by striking out Hayden Miller swinging for the second consecutive at-bat.
UIC would then respond in the next frame with a pair of runs crossing home plate, when junior
Thomas Curry would hit a single to right field, scoring junior
Vidal Colon from second. Kampa would once again cross the plate later in the inning on the fielder's choice, giving UIC a 4-1 lead entering the middle innings.
The Braves cut the deficit to two, but Bak settled in for the remainder of his outing. Backed by strong defensive play, the senior ended his night by forcing Bradley's
Peyton Nelson to ground into an inning-ending double play in the sixth. Bak finished with six innings pitched, allowing two runs on five hits while striking out seven and walking three.
Bradley tied the game with a two-run bottom of the seventh, but UIC responded quickly in the next frame. After loading the bases, Curry broke the tie with a two-run double, scoring Colon and junior
Alexander Wright.
In the next at-bat, junior
Lucas Smith crushed a 2-0 pitch from Bradley's Calen Schneider for a two-run home run, his third of the season, extending UIC's lead to 8-4.The Flames added three more runs in the top of the ninth on a two-run double from Wright and a sacrifice fly from senior
Will Flanigan.
In his second consecutive night of work out of the bullpen, graduate student
Mark Eddie closed out his second inning of relief work, recording four strikeouts and allowing just one hit as UIC collected the victory.
With a win over Bradley tomorrow, the Flames can secure the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title and clinch the No. 1 seed for the 2026 MVC Baseball Championship, set for May 20-23 in Murray, Ky.
The entire play-by-play and box score can be found
here.
UP NEXT!
UIC closes out conference play Saturday afternoon, as they go toe-to-toe against Bradley at 3 p.m. (CT) at Dozer Park. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ and live stats will be available at UICFlames.com. Fans can also listen to for free on the Flames Network.
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on UIC Athletics and UIC baseball, visit
UICFlames.com. Fans can also follow the Flames on social media through X (
@UIC_Baseball and
@UICFlames) and Instagram (
@uic_baseball and
@uicflames).
#
ChicagosCollegeTeam