Life in the Valley

Indiana State won for the 18th time in 19 games Friday, downing Bradley, 6-1, in Peoria. The win improved the Sycamores to 30-13 overall, 17-2 in the Missouri Valley Conference – good enough for a 2.5-game lead over similarly surging Missouri State (27-16, 14-4), who is at Murray State (25-21, 10-8) this weekend.

Indiana State got deserved national attention this week at D1Baseball.com, where the Sycamores were projected to host a regional as the #16 overall seed. Tennessee, Iowa, and Central Michigan are projected to join the party in Terre Haute, though these projections do change weekly. The Sycamores entered the day with an RPI of 10, higher than that of national powers such as Virginia (11), Miami (12), former Valley rival Dallas Baptist (16), aforementioned Tennessee (18). Indiana State lost to Iowa, 6-2, in its season opener. But between dominating The Valley and a significant non-conference schedule that saw the Sycamores play 14 Power-5 opponents (with a 6-8 record, including 5 straight wins), Indiana State has played their RPI cards right to get into this position.

Today, after taking 2 of 3 at Evansville last weekend and beating Illinois in a thrilling mid-week game, broke open a scoreless game with 2 runs in the 4th inning, then added single runs in the 5th and 6th to take a 4-1 advantage. Mike Sears and Miguel Rivera both homered – the 2nd in as many games for Rivera, whose 13th-inning blast beat the Fighting Illini on Tuesday. Sears and Randal Diaz each scored 2 runs.

All of that was more than enough for ace Matt Jachec, who pitched his 3rd complete game of the season, allowing just 1 run on 5 hits with 0 walks and 7 strikeouts. He threw 113 pitches and kept Braves hitters off balance, getting 10 fly outs and 10 ground outs to go with the whiffs. Jachec is now 5-2 on the season through 11 starts, with a 1.06 WHIP, 3.13 ERA, and 78 strikeouts in 74 2/3 innings. He’s allowed just 5 HRs all season, or 1 every 14.9 innings.

Sears’ homer was his 13th os the season to go with 38 RBIs. The Sycamores and Braves meet against Saturday and Sunday. Neither game is currently scheduled to be broadcast but audio will be available at www.gosycamores.com.