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TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The University of Evansville baseball team fell to Southern Illinois, 9-1, in its opening game of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Tuesday afternoon at Bob Warn Field in Terre Haute, Ind.
 
Evansville (34-20) managed just five hits against Southern Illinois (26-29) starter Sam Coonrod (2-6), while the Salukis scored four runs on five hits in 5.0 innings against Purple Aces' ace Kyle Freeland (10-2).
 
Senior Jake Mahon led UE at the plate by going 2-for-3 with a walk and junior Jarod Perry drove in Evansville's lone run with a second-inning sacrifice fly.
 
The Aces scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the second, when Perry plated junior Boomer Synek with a one-out sacrifice fly giving UE an early 1-0 lead.
 
Evansville drew five walks through the first three innings, but could only capitalize on Synek's and SIU was able to break through against Freeland in both the fourth and fifth frames.
 
Southern Illinois took a 2-1 lead in its half of the fourth, when Ryan Rosthenhausler tied the game with a sacrifice fly to center, prior to the Salukis executing a delayed double steal, allowing Matt Jones to cross for the go-ahead run.
 
SIU padded its lead by scoring two more runs in the top of the fifth on Cody Daily's triple down the right field line, allowing both Jake Welch and Ryan Casillas to score from second and first, respectively.
 
Freeland was lifted after just 5.0 innings of work, matching his second-shortest outing of the season, as the junior southpaw notched six strikeouts and issued a season-high four walks.
 
Southern Illinois broke the game open by scoring five more runs against Evansville's bullpen in the seventh en route to the 9-1 victory.  Casillas drove in two of the runs with a two-run home run over the wall in left off of Aces' reliever Brent Jurceka, before Parker Osborne drove in two more with a single and Dyllin Mucha capped the scoring by coaxing a bases-loaded walk against Conor Gilligan.
 
With the loss, Evansville falls into the loser's bracket and will look to stave off elimination tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. CT against No. 4 seed Wichita State.  Senior Cole Isom is scheduled to take the mound for UE, while the Shockers will counter with A.J. Ladwig.