Life in the Valley

Early in its Wednesday night matchup at #22 Miami, the Indiana State Sycamores flipped the script on the powerful Hurricanes, as the third ISU batter of the game, Luis Hernandez, homered to deep left to give State a 1-0 lead.

But in the long run, Miami’s power won out, and the Hurricanes defeated Indiana State, 9-3. Miami struck back almost immediately against Sycamores starter Brennyn Cutts, who was making his season debut. Blake Cyr hit a 3-run homer for Miami in the 2nd inning, then in the 3rd, Edgardo Villegas (solo) and Yohandy Morales (2-run) went deep. Cyr finished off a 5-RBI night with a 2-run homer to finish the scoring in the 8th inning.

In all, 8 of Miami’s 9 runs came via the long ball – no surprise given the Hurricanes have now blasted 15 homers in 5 games, leading to a 4-1 record. Hernandez’s homer was just the 2nd hit by the Sycamores this season. Indiana State was held to 5 hits total, as they continue to struggle to make contact. The Sycamores are hitting just .186 as a team this season. Hernandez’s homer propelled to the team lead in total bases this season with 11.

Cutts went 2 1/3 innings in his debut, giving up 3 runs on 2 hits with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts. Indiana State used 7 relievers after Cutts, with Cameron Holycross lasting the longest. He went 3 innings, allowing just 1 run on 1 hit with 3 strikeouts.

Indiana State (2-2) returns to their early-season home base in Port Charlotte, Fla., where the Sycamores will take on Northeastern Saturday (doubleheader) and Sunday.

MISSOURI STATE 8, ORAL ROBERTS 5
In Tulsa, Missouri State shook off their long California trip from the weekend and became the first team to knock off Oral Roberts this season, winning 8-5. Missouri State evened its record at 2-2 while Oral Roberts fell to 4-1. Leadoff man and SS Nick Rodriguez hit a pair of home runs and drove in 4 in the victory. Taeg Gollert also homered, drove in 2 runs, and scored twice.

The Bears did almost all of their damage early, taking a 7-1 lead after 3 innings. Starter Tyler Tscherter made use of the support, pitching 3 innings and getting the win, giving up just 1 run on 2 hits with a walk and 2 strikeouts. He got through 3 innings on just 42 pitches, an impressive 4.67 pitches per out for a mid-week starter. With ORU within 3 runs late, Scott Youngbrandt got the final 5 outs to earn his first save of the season.

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