uic baseball beat Murray State 6-5 and advanced to the MVC Baseball Championship Series. The Flames built early cushion, then held the margin long enough to finish the job. Gavin Acosta supplied the sixth-inning punch with his first home run of the year.
UIC Starts Fast
Alexander Wright drove in Lucas Smith with a groundout in the first inning, and UIC led 3-1 after the frame. The quick start kept Murray State chasing from the opening inning.
UIC stretched the lead to 4-1 in the second inning. Murray State answered with two runs in the third to cut the gap to 4-2, but Ashton Kampa scored on a sacrifice fly in the fourth and UIC pushed back to 5-2.
Acosta Delivers In The Sixth
Gavin Acosta changed the shape of the game in the sixth inning. He hit his first home run of the year, and UIC moved ahead 6-4 after the frame.
That extra run mattered because Murray State had already shown it could close the gap. The Racers’ third-inning burst had trimmed a three-run deficit, and the late scoring kept pressure on UIC through the final innings.
MVC Championship Series Awaits
The result sent UIC into the MVC Baseball Championship Series and crowned UIC Baseball as the 2026 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Champions. UIC also drew No. 2 Georgia Tech in the 2026 NCAA Tournament, giving the program a clear next stage after the conference run.
The game also featured a catch in the seventh inning, part of the closing stretch that preserved the one-run win. For UIC, the scoreboard line was the cleanest answer: 6-5, and one step deeper into postseason play.
