Southern Illinois University
27-29
Indiana State
30-22
SIU drops back-and-forth battle with Indiana State, 9-7
05/23/2018 | 3:32:00 | Baseball
DALLAS, Texas - In a long, wild, back-and-forth game, Indiana State pulled out a 9-7 with over Southern Illinois in the first game of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. Indiana State's Jake Means hit a walk-off two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Sycamores the win.
"I thought we played well," Henderson said. "We competed our rear ends off. We answered every time we needed to. I'm proud of our ball club. Sometimes it just doesn't work out, and today it didn't. Give Indiana State credit. They kept competing, too. It was a great game, and they got the last big swing."
SIU (27-29) jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the top of the first inning. Nikola Vasic led off with a double, and Connor Kopach drew a walk. After a double-steal, Alex Lyon drove them home. Indiana State (30-22) hit a leadoff homer in the bottom half of the inning to draw within 2-1, but Logan Blackfan collected his 60th RBI of the season in the third inning to push SIU's lead to 3-1.
Indiana State scored four unanswered runs to take a 5-3 lead after six innings. SIU starter Michael Baird wasn't dominant as usual, but he limited a very high-powered Sycamore offense—one that scored 30 runs in the final weekend of the season—to five runs (four earned) in 6.2 innings. The Sycamores needed 11 hits against Baird to score their runs.
"Michael Baird showed his toughness today," Henderson said. "He didn't have his best stuff, but he competed for us and gave us a chance."
With SIU trailing 5-3 in the seventh inning, Kenton Crawford and Brad Hudson drew walks, and Connor Kopach hit a go-ahead three-run home run to give SIU a 6-5 lead. Indiana State answered with a two-run homer in the eighth, and Kopach again extended the game with a two-out, two-strike RBI double to knot the game up, 7-7, heading to the ninth. On the game, Kopach was 3-for-4 with two doubles, a home run, four RBIs, a stolen base, and three runs scored.
"You want your seniors to step up in this situation, and he certainly did," Henderson said of Kopach. "He probably played his best game of the year. Big swing after big swing. That's all you can ask for."
Southern Illinois will face Evansville in an elimination game at 9 a.m. on Thursday morning. The winner advances to play at 9 a.m. on Friday morning against the loser of Thursday afternoon's Missouri State vs. Indiana State game.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Tyler Grauer (3-1)
L: Netemeyer, Ryan (0-4)
Batting:
2B: Vasic, Nikola 1 ; Kopach, Connor 2
HR: Kopach, Connor 1
RBI: Kopach, Connor 4 ; Blackfan, Logan 1 ; Lyon, Alex 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Vasic, Nikola 2 ; Kopach, Connor 3 ; Crawford, Kenton 1 ; Hudson, Brad 1
SB: Vasic, Nikola 1 ; Kopach, Connor 1
CS: Anderson, Hunter 1
PO: Lyon, Alex 1 ; Crawford, Kenton 1
Batting:
2B: Cj Huntley 1 ; Dane Giesler 1 ; Romero Harris 1 ; Jake Means 1 ; Roberto Enriquez 2
HR: Clay Dungan 1 ; Dane Giesler 1 ; Jake Means 1 ; Max Wright 1
RBI: Clay Dungan 1 ; Dane Giesler 1 ; Jake Means 3 ; Roberto Enriquez 2 ; Max Wright 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Clay Dungan 1 ; Dane Giesler 1 ; Jordan Schaffer 1 ; Jarrod Watkins 2 ; Jake Means 2 ; Luke Fegen 1 ; Max Wright 1
SB: Clay Dungan 1
