Life in the Valley

Monke’s Strong Start Clutch for Illinois State

If you were Southern Illinois heading into Thursday night’s game against Illinois State, your game plan to eliminate the Redbirds would probably have been to limit the damage done by red-hot Illinois State hitters Auggie Rasmussen, Daniel Pacella, and Noah Rabin.

Job done, sort of. That trio combined to go 0-for-12 with a run and an RBI, a performance SIU gladly would have accepted. But it didn’t matter. Judah Morris had 3 hits, Shai Robinson homered, scored 4 runs, and drove in 3, Luke Lawrence had 3 RBIs, while Tyler Herron had 3 hits and 4 RBIs, as Illinois State stomped on SIU’s game pan to the tune of a 14-4, 8-inning, walk-off win to stay alive in the Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Championship. Lawrence provided the final blow, an RBI single that scored J.T. Sokolove with the game-ending run.

Carter Monke, who pitched an 8-inning gem against Belmont on the final weekend of the regular season, was solid again for Illinois State, going 6 innings and striking out 9 over 95 pitches (5.28 pitches per out). Monke only walked 2, and he’s fanned 46 now and walked just 17 in 56 2/3 innings on the season. Braden Roesch got the final 6 outs, not allowing a run.

SIU’s big hit was a 3-run homer by Jake Allgeyer in the 6th inning that got the Salukis back within 7-4. But the Redbirds immediately answered, as Robinson’s 3-run homer in the bottom half re-established Illinois State’s 6-run lead at 10-4.

Next opponents for both SIU (33-26) and Illinois State
(30-26) are to be determined.