TERRE HAUTE, Ind. ? It was Senior Day on Sunday at Sycamore Field and 11 Indiana State seniors were looking to help their team sweep Evansville and pick up their fifth Missouri Valley Conference series win in a row. The Sycamores (33-14, 15-4 MVC) got solid contributions from seniors Brady Shoemaker and Bronco Lafrenz and powered their way to a 13-1 mercy-rule win in eight innings against the Purple Aces (25-26, 7-14 MVC).
ISU starter Joe Rodriguez was outstanding on the mound, as he allowed just six hits while striking out a career-high 11 batters in seven scoreless innings of work. Matt Shelton allowed one run on a solo home run in the eighth inning, but closed out the game for ISU. UE starter Keegan Dennis, who was coming off a seven-inning no-hitter in his last outing, suffered the loss for the Aces after allowing six earned runs on six hits in four innings on the mound.
The Sycamores picked up a run in the bottom of the first inning, thanks to a solo home run off the bat of Shoemaker. The home run was Shoemaker was his team-leading 13th of the season and the most by any Sycamore hitter since 2001.
ISU later added to that lead to make it 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning on a Bronco Lafrenz sacrifice fly. After Rodriguez set down the Purple Aces in order in the top of the fifth inning, the Sycamores broke the game open with five runs in the bottom of the inning to extend their lead to 7-0.
Ben Ferrell singled to center field to lead off the inning and then advanced to third base on a Ryan Strausborger double to left field. Pascual Del Real then walked to load the bases for Shoemaker, who followed and singled to left center field to score Ferrell and keep the bases juiced. J.R. Carbonell then came in to pitch for Davis and gave up a bases-clearing triple to Nick Ciolli down the right field line to make the score 6-0. Later in the inning, Ciolli capped off the five-run outburst as he scored from third base on a wild pitch by Carbonell.
A RBI double to right field by Shoemaker in the bottom of the sixth inning widened the ISU lead to 8-0 when Strausborger scored from third base after reaching on a bunt single and stealing a base earlier in the inning. ISU kept the runs coming in the seventh inning, when Lafrenz launched a solo home run over the left field wall to make the score 9-0.
Evansville finally got on the board in the top of the eighth inning on a solo home run by Greg Wallace over the left field wall off Shelton to cut the lead to 9-1. However, the Sycamores ended the game early in the bottom half of the inning with four runs on three hits and a costly error.
With one out in the inning, pinch hitter Kyle Burnam singled up the middle before Ben Caple struck out swinging for the second out of the inning. Luke Fieser reached on a fielding error by UE third baseman Cody Fick which allowed Burnam to advance to third. Pinch-hitter and senior Brian Ramirez then singled to right field to pick up a RBI as Fieser advanced to third and Burnam scored to make the score 10-1. Lafrenz was up next and ended the game early with a three-run homer over the left field wall to invoke the conference run rule and give the Sycamores a 13-1 win.
Lafrenz finished the day 2-for-3 with two home runs, two runs scored and five RBI to lead the Sycamores and increase his home run total to 10 on the season. Shoemaker also had a great day with three hits, including the home run, three runs scored and three RBI while Ciolli added three hits and three RBI for ISU.
The Sycamores will return to action on Tuesday in non-conference action against Xavier at Sycamore Field, before heading to Missouri State next weekend to wrap up the Valley regular season. First pitch on Tuesday is set for 6 p.m. EST at Sycamore Field.
