Life in the Valley

With all of the Missouri Valley Conference’s mid-week baseball action compressed into Tuesday, it was nice of the weather gods to cooperate and allow all 10 teams to get their games in. For some teams, that was a blessing, like Illinois-Chicago’ in their wild 24-20 win over Northwestern last night. While for others, it was a rough night. Here is a look at the rest of Tuesday’s action around the league with a reading recommendation at the end.

Bradley 5, SIU-Edwardsville 4
Ryan Vogel homered and scored 3 runs, Luis Delgado drove in 2 runs, and Connor O’Brien added another homer, as well, as the Braves fought off SIU-E, 5-4, to improve to 11-17 on the season. Vogel also stole 2 bases. Redshirt freshman Noah Enders pitched 4 scoreless innings of relief to get his 3rd win of the season, walking none and striking out 6. Connor Langrell picked up his 8th save of the season.

Indiana State 4, Purdue 1
Mike Sears hit his 11th homer of the season – a 2-run shot, and Grant Magill added a 2-run single to provide all the offense in the Sycamores’ 4-1 win over the Boilermakers. Indiana State (19-12) improved to 4-4 against Big 10 competition this season. Jacob Pruitt (1-1) pitched 2 innings of no-hit relief early in the game to get the win while Brennyn Cutts got his 1st save with a scoreless 9th.

Illinois 16, Illinois State 5
The Redbirds (10-17) weren’t as fortunate against their Big 10 opponent on Tuesday, falling 16-5 to the Fighting Illini. Illinois had 4 different 3-run innings, as the Fighting Illini bashed 5 doubles, a triple, and 3 homers. Drake Westcott homered and drove in 5 in the win. Greg Nichols doubled twice for Illinois State while Auggie Rasmussen had 3 hits.

Southern Illinois 8, Southeast Missouri State 5
SIU (18-17) moved a game over .500 with an 8-5 win over SEMO Tuesday. Cole Christman went 3-for-3 with 2 doubles and 2 runs for the Salukis. Ryan Rodriguez and Steven Loden also doubled twice each as SIU hit 6 wallbangers. SIU used 4 pitchers, with Scott Harper getting the final 5 outs for the save.

Belmont 12, Austin Peay 6
The Bruins (19-15) scored a road win, doubling up the Governors in Clarksville, Tenn. Belmont scored 6 runs in the 9th inning to break open a 6-6 tie, 3 of which came from a homer off the bat of Josh Rando. Mason Landers hit a 3-run homer later in the inning to put the contest well out of reach. Landers also doubled and had 4 RBIs in the game. Ethan Harden worked the last 1 2/3 innings with a strikeout to get the win.

Arkansas State 8, Murray State 7
The Racers fell behind 8-2 to ASU and couldn’t complete the rally, despite scoring 4 runs in the 5th inning and 1 more in the 9th. Brennan McCullough’s 5th-inning grand slam got Murray State within 8-7. In the 9th, Seth Gardner homered to cut it to 1 but that’s as close as the Racers (16-17) got. Nathan Holler kept Murray State in the game with 3 innings of scoreless relief.

Western Kentucky 6, Evansville 2
UE’s 8-game road winning streak came to an end as the Purple Aces (19-13) dropped a 6-2 decision at the Hilltoppers. Brent Widder scored on a wild pitch in the 2nd inning to open the scoring, then homered later to cut WKU’s lead to 3-2, but the Purple Aces couldn’t put forth any more offense. Widder also doubled. Outfielder Eric Roberts, a member of the 10/10 club for homers and steals this season, made his first pitching start of the season in the loss and did well, throwing 3 scoreless innings with 1 walk and 1 strikeout, earning 9 outs on just 37 pitches (4.11 pitches per out).

Missouri 10, Missouri State 1
The Tigers broke open a 4-1 game in the final 2 innings, scoring 6 times to pull away from the Bears, 10-1. Missouri outhit Missouri State, 11-7, though Spencer Nivens and Zack Stewart continued to find success at the plate for the Bears, each going 2-for-4. Nivens’ hit was a double. Anthony Socci’s homer was the lone run for Missouri State (16-15). Missouri stole 5 bases in 7 attempts.

Valparaiso 9, Purdue-Fort Wayne 3
The Beacons (11-14) scored 5 runs in the 4th inning to balloon their 2-1 lead to 7-1 and they never looked back in a 9-3 win over the Mastadons. Kyle Schmack’s 2-run triple was the big blow in the 4th. Brady Renfro homered and had 3 hits and scored 3 runs for the Beacons. Spencer Warfield also went 3-for-5. Kaleb Krier got his 1st win of the season, while Josh Cottrill pitched 4 2/3 innings of scoreless relief with just 1 hit allowed, 1 walk, and 3 strikeouts. Cottrill recorded 14 outs on just 52 pitches (3.71 ppo).

Wednesday Read: If you’ve found your way here, you are probably a D1Baseball.com subscriber, and if not, you should be. Either way, you should make your way over there today to read Patrick Ebert’s weekly mid-major roundup, which features some content on Indiana State pitcher Matt Jachec, the reigning MVC Pitcher of the Week who threw a 5-hit, complete-game shutout last week vs. Illinois State. Ebert also notes this weekend’s clash between Evansville & Southern Illinois as a mid-major series to watch.