July 1, 2003

It was a scene that many young baseball players dream of.

University of Illinois at Chicago shortstop Jordan DeVoir stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning against Butler hurler Randy Miles with the score tied at 1-apiece in the Horizon League Championship game.

DeVoir calmly deposited a 1-0 offering from Miles over the left-field wall to push UIC to the 2-1 victory over the Bulldogs, claiming the Horizon League Tournament Championship and helping the Flames to their first-ever bid to the NCAA Regionals.

The victory also gave UIC 39 wins on the season, tying the school-record that was set last year.

With that swing, DeVoir was named to the Horizon League All-Tournament team, along with catcher Kevin Nelson, pitcher Ryan Martin and Most Valuable Player, Mike Hughes.

The following day, players, family, staff and friends gathered at Giordano's to see what fate awaited the Flames as ESPN2 would announce the tournament pairings for the NCAA Regionals.

The bags were packed and the Flames would be on their way to Palo Alto, Calif., to take part in the Stanford Regional and square off with the No. 4 Cardinal in the opening contest.

UIC hit Stanford hard, but the Flames, unfortunately, were unable to come up with the big base hit as the Cardinal came away with the 9-2 victory in the opener. The Flames stranded 10 runners, including nine in scoring position in the opening round defeat and were sent to the loser's bracket against Richmond.

UIC's season, however, came to an end on Saturday afternoon, as Richmond starter Mike McGirr tossed a complete-game, eight-hit shutout as the Spiders earned the 5-0 victory to eliminate the Flames from tournament play.

For the second straight season, the Flames dominated the Horizon League Post-Season awards as they claimed the Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year and Coach of the Year.

Senior outfielder Chuck Peters was named the Horizon League Player of the Year, as the Orland Park, Ill., native, led UIC with 11 homers and 56 RBI to go along with a robust .343 batting average.

Joining Peters on the first-team were Hughes, second baseman Bryan Russo, third baseman Nelson Gord and pitcher Ryan Gehring.

DeVoir was selected to the All-Horizon League second team along with junior first baseman Brad Ryan. Both DeVoir and Ryan joined Martin on the Horizon League All-Newcomer squad.

Martin was named the Horizon League Newcomer of the Year, garnering a record of 7-1 in his freshman campaign with an ERA of 2.35, which was good for 32nd in the country.

Dee captured the Horizon League Coach of the Year honors for the fourth time in the last five years as the Flames successfully defended their regular-season title with a school-record 15 conference victories after finishing the season with a record of 39-18 after beginning the campaign 2-9.

UIC also made some noise in the national stats as they hold the seventh-best ERA in the country at 3.19, along with the 11th-best batting average of .329.

The Flames tied or set several records in 2003 including: wins (39), hits (630), batting average (.329), fewest runs allowed (219), fewest earned runs allowed (167) and ERA (3.19).

Following the campaign, Nelson signed a free-agent contract with the New York Yankees, marking the third consecutive year that the Flames have sent a player to the professional ranks, following Steve Carlson (New York Yankees, 2001), Curtis Granderson (Detroit Tigers, 2002), Wes Gilliam (Arizona Diamondbacks, 2002) and Kevin Ryan (San Diego Padres, 2002).