Life in the Valley

After a 3-game sweep at Belmont over the weekend, the Indiana State Sycamores (22-12, 11-1) are all alone at the top of the Missouri Valley Conference baseball standings this morning. Southern Illinois, which had been tied with the Sycamores at 8-1 coming into the weekend, rallied from a Friday night loss to take 2 of 3 from visiting rivals Evansville, but that wasn’t enough to keep pace with Indiana State and the Salukis are a game back at 10-2 (22-14 overall).

Indiana State, which as of this morning now carries an RPI of 19 according to D1Baseball.com, followed up Friday’s victory in a battle of aces between State’s Matt Jachec and Belmont’s Andy Bean with a convincing 10-2 victory Saturday and a 5-3 win in the finale. The Sycamores, who struggled a bit at the plate in the early season, had no such issues Saturday, pounding out 17 hits. Seven different Sycamores had at least 2 hits and Mike Sears led the way with 3, including 1 of Indiana State’s 5 doubles. Keegan Watson doubled, homered, and drove in 3. Connor Fenlong showed he a tremendous #2 starter for ISU or any other team, going 8 innings and allowing just 2 runs on 6 hits with 3 walks and 4 strikeouts. He needed just 99 pitches to get 24 outs (4.13 ppo).

In the finale, Indiana State broke open a 2-1 game in the 8th inning with 3 runs, 2 scoring on Jorge Pereira’s single. The runs turned out to be somewhat important, as the Bruins (19-18, 5-7) scored 2 in the 9th on a Jeff Clarke homer, but couldn’t complete the comeback. Belmont has lost 6 straight conference games after a 5-1 start in their maiden Valley voyage. Lane Miller improved to 3-0 for the Sycamores, going 6 2/3 innings and allowing 1 unearned runs on 3 hits with 4 walks and 5 strikeouts.

Indiana State has won 10 straight games and 14 of its last 15.

SIU Walks Off to Series Win Over UE

With a 3-game series at Indiana State next wekeend, the Salukis knew if they could just keep the Sycamores in range this weekend, they’d have everything to play for in a week’s time and after a 10-2 dud Friday night, SIU defeated Evansville twice to take the series. The Sunday finale, seen nationally on ESPNU, ended in dramatic fashion, as Nathan Bandy’s walk-off single scored Matt Schark to give the Salukis a 3-2 victory.

Schark was 2-for-2 with a walk in the victory. He doubled, hit a sac fly, and stole a base, along with scoring the winning run. Tanner Lewis pitched 6 innings as the starter for SIU, striking out 10, while Paul Bonzagni picked up his 6th win of the season by going the final 3 innings. Bonzagni entered the weekend tied for The Valley lead in wins. Another key to SIU’s Sunday win was their work against talented Evansville starter Donovan Schultz, who needed 92 pitches to get through 4 innings. He only allowed 1 run on 3 hits with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts, but the Purple Aces (20-15, 6-6) were forced to go to their bullpen early.

In the Saturday game, SIU 2B Steven Loden hit a 3-run homer and knocked an RBI single for a 4-RBI day in the Salukis’ 6-3 win. Evansville’s Eric Roberts homered in the defeat, his 14th of the season. Roberts now has 42 RBIs and a 1.052 OPS.

Missouri State Enjoys Trip to Sweep Home Chicago

The Bears (19-15, 8-4) rolled through Chicago and swept the Flames of UIC in comprehensive fashion, taking the 3 games by a total score of 37-11. After a 6-2 victory in the series opener, the Bears’ bats really got going, as Missouri State rolled to wins of 19-3 and 12-6. In Game 2, the Bears built a 15-2 lead after 4 innings, including 6 RBIs from Spencer Nivens, who hit a 3-run homer in the 1st inning, a 2-run single in the 2nd, and an RBI single in the 3rd. Nivens (.374-10-35) has raises his OPS to 1.160. Taeg Gollert and Jake McCutcheon also had 3 hits each for Missouri State.

In Game 3, the Bears overturned an early 3-0 deficit with 11 runs combined in the 4th and 5th innings to secure the sweep. Zack Stewart doubled, homered, and drove in 4 runs. while Carter Bergman homered twice and knocked home 3 runs. Nivens, who had the big day in Game 2, was hit by pitches twice in Game 3. Jake Eddington struck out 7 over 5 innings to get the win. Charlie Szykowny hit a 3-run homer for the Flames, who fell to 14-17, 3-9, and fell to a tie for 8th in the conference standings.

Racers Roll Redbirds, Take 4th

Murray State improved to 7-5 in The Valley (19-17 overall) with a 3-game sweep of Illinois State over the weekend. Murray State won by scores of 7-4, 14-8, and 8-6. After Jacob Pennington defeated ISU ace Derek Salata in Friday’s opener, the Racers reversed a 7-6 deficit by scoring 6 runs in the top of the 7th inning. Dustin Mercer’s grand slam was the big blow, a shot that gave him 7 RBIs in the game. Mercer (5-for-6, 4 runs, 7 RBIs) had hit a 3-run homer in the 6th inning to give Murray State a 6-4 lead. The Redbirds (10-20, 2-10) fought back with 3 in the bottom of the 6th to take the lead before the Racer rally. Ethan Krizen and Riley Hawthorne each had 3 hits for Murray State.

In the series finale, Mercer homered again, a 2-run shot in the 5th inning that gave the Racers an 8-4 lead. Mercer leads Murray State with a .340 average and now also holds the team lead in homers with 8. Hawthorne also homered, while Krizen and Nathan Holler combined to pitch 4 scoreless innings of relief to secure the win. They allowed just 1 hit with 0 walks and 3 strikeouts. Daniel Pacella homered for Illinois State, which has lost 7 straight games.

Beacons Bash Bradley to Get to .500 Overall

Valparaiso took all 3 from Bradley (11-20, 3-9) to get to 14-14 overall on the season, 5-7 in The Valley. The Beacons outscored the Braves, 26-11, for the weekend, including a 10-0 result in the series finale. Nolan Tucker went 2-for-3 with a double and 3 RBIs from the leadoff spot for Valpo in the win. Jake Skrine and Ryan Maka homered for the Beacons. Skrine also homered and drove in 5 runs in the second game of the series, the first part of a Saturday doubleheader. Skrine went 4-for-4 in that game with a sac fly for good measure.

Bobby Nowak pitched a 7-inning shutout, allowing just 3 hits with 3 walks and 6 strikeouts. He threw 95 pitches (4.52 ppo). It was only the 3rd complete game shutout by a Valley pticher this season and the first authored by a Valparaiso hurler. Nowak lowered his season ERA to 2.10 and his record improved to 4-0. He has struck out 42 in 30 innings. Opposing hitters are batting just .172 against Nowak this season.

Valpo visits Notre Dame on Tuesday before its next conference series at home to UIC next weekend. Bradley goes to Iowa this Wednesday before hosting Illinois State over the weekend.