DeKALB–The baseball team’s winning streak came to an end Tuesday, losing to the University of Illinois-Chicago Flames 8-3 in a one-off road game.

Head Coach Mike Kunigonis said he was disappointed with the outcome, but can takeaway the fact his team is improving.

“It was a disappointing outcome today,” Kunigonis said to NIU Athletics.”We grinded out three runs in the fifth to give ourselves a lead but it wasn’t enough. We’ll bounce back with a great day of practice tomorrow and be ready to go at Central Michigan this weekend.”

The Flames took an early lead with a pair of runs in the fourth before NIU answered with two runs off a junior outfielder Brendan Joyce 2 RBI single.

The Huskies took the lead with a first-year outfielder Nick Drobushevich sacrifice fly RBI , ending the fifth up 3-2.

UIC tied the game up in the sixth when senior outfielder Scott Ota hit an RBI single to centerfield. Ota led the way for the Flames with three RBI’s on three-for-five batting.

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First-year catcher Ryan Hampe also tallied three RBI’s, including the go ahead two-RBI double to put UIC up 5-3 in the sixth. The Flames rounded out the inning with a bases loaded walk to go up 6-3.

Ota and Hampe picked up two more RBIs for the Flames for the eventual 8-3 final.

UIC junior pitcher Fred Gosbeth picked up the win for the Flames, pitching two innings and striking out three.

Junior pitcher Ryan Anderson started for the Huskies, pitching only four innings and giving up two runs in his first start of the year.

The Huskies loss puts them at 7-17 heading into their first road conference series this weekend against the Central Michigan Chippewas. Game one of the series starts 3 p.m. Friday.