TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The Indiana State baseball team earned a 6-2 victory over the Southern Illinois Salukis on Sunday afternoon at Bob Warn Field at Sycamore Stadium. ISU improves to 14-19 overall and 4-8 in the Missouri Valley, while Southern Illinois falls to 7-28, and 3-6 in the Valley.
The Sycamores got on the board first in the bottom of the first inning. Landon Curry led off with a single to center and came home on a Jacob Hayes home run to right center. It's Hayes' third home run in four games.
ISU added another run in the bottom of the second inning. Andy DeJesus singled, and back-to-back walks to Taylor Steen and Connor McClain loaded the bases for Curry. Curry drew a walk to plate DeJesus and put ISU up 3-0 after two innings.
Indiana State added a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. DeJesus led off by drawing a walk and scored when Steen hit it back to the SIU pitcher who's throw to first went wide of the base and into foul territory in right field. DeJesus scored on the play and Steen moved to third. McClain lifted a fly ball to right field, deep enough to score Steen on the sacrifice fly. ISU led 5-0 after four innings.
Southern Illinois added a pair of solo runs in the seventh and eighth innings. In the seventh, Tyler Rolland led off with a single and moved to third on an Austin Sabo double. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases and scored a run to cut the lead to 5-1, in favor of ISU.
Southern Illinois led off the seventh with a solo home run from Greg Lambert to bring the score to 5-2.
ISU scored a run in the bottom of the eighth inning. DeJesus led off with a walk and scored on a Curry double to push the lead to 6-2 ISU.
Ethan Larrison (2-2) earned the win, tossing a career-high 6.1 innings. Larrison scattered six hits, allowing one earned run, walking two and striking out four. Ryan Cheek made his fifth appearance of the year, walking the one batter he faced. Michael Eberle made his 13th appearance of the year, going 1.0 innings, allowing two hits, an earned run and struck out one. Austin Conway picked up his team-leading third save of the season. Conway went 1.2 innings, giving up one hit, walking one and striking out two.
At the plate, the Sycamores were led by the redshirt senior Hayes. Hayes finished 3-for-5 with two RBI, and a run scored. Curry finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and scored a run, while DeJesus finished 2-for-3 and scored three runs. Andy Young added a 2-for-4 performance.
The Sycamores return to action on Tuesday, Apr. 14th when they host the Indiana Hoosiers at 6:00 p.m. at Bob Warn Field at Sycamore Stadium. The Humane Society will be on hand with a small animal viewing area and will be accepting monetary donations throughout the day.
For the latest information on the Sycamore Baseball team, make sure to visit GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook and Twitter.
