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AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The University of Evansville baseball team closed the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational with a 9-7 win over Maine Saturday afternoon at Lake Myrtle Park in Auburndale, Fla., to close the four-day event with an even 2-2 record.
 
"It was great to see our guys close out the trip with a win," head coach Wes Carroll said.  "After a slow start to the week, our bats came alive over the last two days and it was good to see us get going offensively to take some pressure off of our pitching staff."
 
Sophomore Josh Jyawook provided the game-deciding hit for Evansville (8-6) by driving in three runs with a bases-clearing double, as part of a four-run eighth for the Aces.  Junior Brett Synek also drove in three runs and was one of four UE players to tally multi-hit games.  Sophomore Jonathan Roman doubled twice, as part of a 2-for-3 effort that included two runs and an RBI and junior Kyle Pollock went 2-for-5 at the plate with a double and two runs scored.
 
Sophomore Brent Jurceka (1-0) earned his first win of the year in relief by tossing 2.2 scoreless innings with three strikeouts.  Jurceka allowed just one hit and issued one walk out of the bullpen.  Aces' starter Connor Strain allowed three runs, two earned, in six hits over 4.0 innings with three strikeouts and senior Sam Johns picked up his third save of the year despite allowing three runs on six hits over the final two innings.
 
"We are ready to get back to the friendly confines of Braun Stadium for a midweek game this week, before opening Missouri Valley Conference play next weekend," Carroll said.  "It will be good for us to get settled back in at home and be on our home diamond again."
 
Maine (7-13) came out of the gate swinging, as the Black Bears scored three runs on four hits in the bottom of the first to take an early 3-0 lead.  After Strain was able to retire the first two Maine hitters, the Black Bears strung together four-straight singles, including RBI hits by Scott Heath and Brian Doran, to score their three runs.
 
UE was able to chip away at the lead by getting one run back in the top of the second on an RBI single by Synek and Evansville made the score 3-2 in the fourth, when freshman Devin Williams scored sophomore Eric McKibban with a two-out double.
 
Maine looked like it would put together another big inning in the fifth, when it opened the frame with three-straight hits, including an RBI double from Steven Adam, off of Aces' reliever Tyler Miller.  However, Miller was able to retire Heath on an infield popup, before Jurceka came out of the pen and recorded the next two outs to keep runners stranded at second and third and keep the Black Bears' lead at 4-2.
 
UE added an run in the seventh, when junior Jarod Perry scored on a wild pitch, before finally taking the lead with its four-run eighth.  Junior Kyle Pollock reached on an error to lead off the inning and advanced into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt by McKibban, before Ramon tied the game with a double.  Later in the inning, Jyawook came through with his bases-clearing double that put UE in front, 8-4, after the top half of the eighth.
 
Maine would put together a rally of their own in the bottom of the eighth, scoring three runs off of Johns.  Doran started the rally with a leadoff triple, before Shane Bussey, Jonathan Salcedo and Sam Balzano followed with three-straight singles.  After Johns struck out Colin Gay for the first out of the inning, Troy Black drove in a run with a single and Salcedo tagged and scored on a fly ball off the bat of Adam to cut Evansville's lead to 8-7 heading into the ninth.
 
The Aces added an insurance run in their half of the ninth, when a fly ball to left from Synek allowed junior Kevin Kaczmarki to tag and score from third, and Johns was able to work around a two-out double in the ninth to secure the UE win.
 
Evansville will be at Braun Stadium for nine of its next 10 games and will kick off a five-game home stand, when it hosts UT Martin Tuesday, March 18, at 6 p.m.