Baseball Earns Horizon League Postseason Accolades
May 19, 2008
Chicago, Ill.- Four student-athletes on the seven-time conference champion UIC baseball team were honored with postseason accolades from the Horizon League for their on-field efforts in 2008, the league office announced on Monday, May 19. Junior right-handed pitcher Derrick Miramontes (Durham, Calif./Durham H.S./Butte College) was named the Horizon League Newcomer of the Year while earning spots on the All-Horizon League Second Team and All-Newcomer Team. Fellow junior right-handed hurler Adam Worthington (Gurnee, Ill./Warren Township H.S.) was selected as the Horizon League Relief Pitcher of the Year. The UIC closer joined Miramontes on the All-League Second Team. True freshman center fielder Steve McGuiggan (Burnsville, Minn./Apple Valley H.S.) was chosen to the All-League Second Team and All-Newcomer Team. Rounding out UIC's group of player award winners is true freshman shortstop Rafael Garcia (Chicago, Ill./Clemente H.S.), who earned a spot on the League All-Newcomer Team.
UIC head coach Mike Dee earned an unprecedented eighth Horizon League Coach of the Year award, sharing the honor with Youngstown State's Rich Pasquale. It was the fourth straight season that Dee has won the Coach of the Year nod. Miramontes went 6-2 with a 3.38 earned run average in 16 appearances during his first season in a UIC uniform. Eight of Miramontes' 12 starts can be classified as "quality starts" in which he went at least six innings and allowed no more than three earned runs. In his second go-around as UIC's closer, Worthington finished the regular season with five saves while finishing 24 of the Flames' games. He struck out 35 hitters in 39.1 innings of relief work. McGuiggan has led the Flames in hitting all year long, closing out the regular season with a .363 (74-for-204) batting average, 35 RBI and 13 stolen bases in 50 games. He started all but one game in center field and locked up the leadoff spot, a place where he thrived thanks to a .422 on-base percentage.
Garcia, a slick-fielding shortstop who started 45 games in his rookie campaign, hit .291 (44-for-151) with three home runs and 25 RBI. He rebounded from a tough start to hit .346 (28-for-81) in the last 25 games of the season, the second-best average on the team in the last half of the year. The Flames (31-19, 17-6 Horizon) won their seventh consecutive Horizon League regular season title this past Saturday, doing so without an All-League First Team selection. This is the first time since 1998, and the first time in Dee's 10-year tenure at the helm of the program, that UIC has not had at least one all-conference first team player.
UIC is the top seed in the 2008 Horizon League Baseball Championship presented by U.S. Army at Youngstown State's Eastwood Field. The Flames begin tournament play this Thursday, May 22 at 6 p.m. Central against an opponent to be determined.
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