TERRE HAUTE – After staving off elimination with a morning victory over Southern Illinois, the University of Evansville baseball team saw its season come to an end on Friday evening with a 13-6 loss to Dallas Baptist at Bob Warn Field.
"Our back was against the wall, and we showed a lot of character these last two days," UE head coach Wes Carroll said. "I'm really proud of this team. We ran into an Omaha-caliber squad in Dallas Baptist today, but our seniors really performed all year for us, and I couldn't be more proud of that group of guys."
The Aces, who finish the year with a 29-27 overall record, fell behind early on a pair of home runs in the third inning from Tim Millard and Daniel Sweet, and Camden Duzenack's two run blast an inning later highlighted a five-run frame for the Patriots (39-17) as they grabbed an 8-0 lead after four.
The Patriots went on to tack another score in the fifth before Trey Hair put the Aces on the board with a three-run shot to center in the bottom of the eighth. DBU would wipe it out in the ensuing half-inning with a four-run frame to make it 13-3.
Josh Jyawook rounded out the scoring with a three-run blast in what would prove his final collegiate at-bat in the ninth.
Earlier in the day, Austin Allinger tossed what he described as the best outing of his career, giving up four hits and a run over eight innings of work to help the Aces muzzle a Saluki team that handed them their first loss of the tournament earlier this week. Hair's fifth-inning three-run blast was the difference as the Aces won 3-2.
The loss to DBU comes after one of the more memorable postseason runs in school history. After dropping four conference series entering the week, the Aces reeled off back-to-back elimination game wins against Illinois State and Southern Illinois, becoming just the third team under the direction of Carroll to collect multiple postseason victories.
"Our seniors really gave it their all this season," Carroll said. "When you judge classes, you try to determine whether this place is better off for having them here, and that is definitely true with these guys. This group really helped take this program forward. They were a big part of that dogpile in 2014, and to battle through some of the things they have and fight like that up here, I'm really proud of this club."
NOTES: UE homered 51 times this season, which was the most since leaving the park 53 times in 2010 … Trey Hair, Korbin Williams and Jonathan Ramon are the first Aces to record double-digit homers in a season since the NCAA changed its bat standards prior to 2011 … The Aces are 25-35 all-time in the Missouri Valley Tournament … Thursday marked the first extra-innings win for the Aces in Missouri Valley Championship history … The Aces last won two MVC tournament games in 2013 … UE's lone conference tournament trophy was lifted in 2006 … The Aces finished 2016 with a third consecutive winning record … The Aces have posted a better-than-.500 mark for the season six times in Wes Carroll's eight years at the helm … Only Don Ping (1947-66) and Jim Brownlee (1980-02) have recorded more winning seasons than Carroll.
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