CHICAGO – UIC jumped ahead 7-1 after four innings Friday afternoon and five home runs to hand the Missouri State baseball team a 9-6 loss in the opening game of their Missouri Valley Conference series at Curtis Granderson Stadium.
 
Despite the loss, the Bears (19-17, 10-3) maintained their lead in the league standings at roughly the halfway mark of the 27-game conference schedule. UIC moved to 6-7 in Valley play and 10-25 overall.
 
The Flames scored one in the first and the teams traded solo homers in the second frame for a 2-1 UIC lead, with Tyler Epstein's solo shot for the Bears extending his hitting streak to 12 games.
 
UIC broke it open with a five-run fourth to make it 7-1, sending 11 to the plate after the first five reached safely.
 
Nick Rodriguez smacked a two-run double in the fifth followed by a Jake McCutcheon single to halve the deficit to 7-4. For Rodriguez, the two-bagger extended his streak to 15 consecutive games with an extra-base hit and overall hitting streak to 23, tied for the fifth-longest in school history.
 
After a UIC homer in the bottom of the fifth, Caden Bogenpohl and Rodriguez connected on back-to-back two-out singles to pull the Bears within 8-6. Bogenpohl extended his reached base streak to 49 games.
 
The Flames added another solo shot in the seventh for the 9-6 final, holding the Bears' offense in check the rest of the way.
 
The series concludes with a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday.