The University of Illinois Springfield’s historic baseball season is over.
Ohio Dominican scored five runs in the first two innings and five more in the fifth – and center fielder Noah Bland made a fantastic, season-saving catch on a near UIS grand slam in the seventh – in the Panthers’ 14-12 victory in the NCAA Division II Midwest Baseball Regional on Sunday at Robin Roberts Stadium.
UIS (47-9) ends a season in which it had a 29-game winning streak, won the Great Lakes Valley Conference, won a school-record 47 games and earned its first ever Division II regional wins.
“You hate it,” said UIS coach Chris Ramirez. “But it ends for every team at some point. There is only one team that ends with a win.
“When you get to the final three of an NCAA regional, every team is good. Every team is deserving. But only one team gets to move on. We have a World Series team, we just didn’t win the tournament.”
The UIS coaching staff spent some time talking to the team after the game, before the players hugged and rolled out the tarp over the infield. Although they were disappointed, Ramirez said this group will be remembered at UIS for a long time.
“That’s what we tried to talk to them about after the game,” he said. “It was an amazing season and it means a lot to this program.
“I’m really proud of them.”
This story appeared in The State Journal-Register on May 20, 2018.
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