SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The University of Evansville baseball team saw its early scoring opportunities go to waste, and Indiana State made them pay for it, pushing across four runs in the bottom of the third and never looking back as the Sycamores went on to eliminate the Purple Aces from the Missouri Valley Conference Championship in 11-3 fashion on Friday at Hammons Field.
"I thought we had some quality at-bats all tournament and today," UE head coach Wes Carroll said. "I think we had 21 quality trips to the plate today, and that usually translates to a win. The run production just didn't show. We weren't able to get that big hit with a runner in scoring position and really try to blow up the game. That was the tale of the offense for us today."
The loss, which marked the second to the third-seeded Sycamores at this year's conference tournament, saw UE end its season with an 18-39 overall record. ISU, which improved to 29-25 on the year, will play another elimination game on Friday afternoon against Dallas Baptist. The team will have to beat the Patriots twice to advance to Saturday's conference championship game.
UE challenged ISU starter Jeremy McKinney early and often on Friday, loading the bases against the junior in the opening frame, but the efforts proved fruitless as Korbin Williams was struck out to end the threat. The Aces would go on to strand three more over the course of the second and third innings before the Sycamores erupted for four runs in the bottom of the third.
Tyler Friis earned a walk to lead things off, and Tony Rosselli followed up with a triple to cash in the first score before a groundout and a pair doubles from Jeff Zahn and Dominic Bifano resulted in three more runs to close out the inning.
Friis went on to finish the day 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBI. Both Bifano and Zahn also enjoyed two-hit days as the Sycamores out-hit the Aces 12-6.
UE went on to halve the deficit on ground balls from Troy Beilsmith and Stewart Nelson in the fourth and sixth innings, respectively, before ISU responded with another four-run frame in the bottom of the sixth. A Cody Gardner single plated the first score, and Dane Giesler made it 8-2 moments later with a three-run blast to center.
Nelson led the Aces, going 2-for-4, and Craig Shepherd reached base three times, ending 1-for-2 with a pair of hit-by-pitches. He also scored twice. UE had a runner reach base safely in all nine innings.
ISU continued to pull away an inning later, scoring three more times to make it 11-2.
Andrew Tanous claimed a consolation run with a solo blast to left in the ninth.
Hayden was dealt the loss after allowing all four runs on five hits in 3.2 innings of work. He dropped to 4-8 on the year. Meanwhile, McKinney picked up the no-decision after putting six Aces on in two-plus innings of work. Damon Olds improved to 1-2 after taking to the mound in the third and surrendering a pair of runs on three hits while striking out five.
"It's always tough to say goodbye," Caroll said. "As a program, we obviously didn't reach our goal this season, but I feel like we took some big steps forward with a lot of young guys in our program. This is probably the first time we've started four and five freshmen in the line-up in my time at UE, and we're depending on them and their overall development for our future. We still have some things to work on, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it comes together."
NOTES: UE is now 26-37 all-time in the MVC tournament … The Aces are 5-8 in tournaments that have been played in Springfield and 4-8 as the No. 6 seed … UE has played more 9 a.m. games than any other team in Valley history … The Aces are 12-13 all-time in morning contests at the conference championship … UE is now 3-5 all-time in the MVC tournament against the Sycamores and 44-63 overall since 1978 … UE earned three tournament wins over the past two seasons, which is the most since 2012-13.
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