SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – No. 3 seed Indiana State opened the 2017 Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Championship with a 13-4 win over six-seeded Evansville Wednesday morning at Hammons Field in Springfield, Missouri. The Sycamore offense struck for 11 unanswered runs in their final three offensive innings to pull away from Purple Aces.
 
The Sycamores (28-24) battled with Evansville for a majority of the contest. UE opened the game by scoring in the first inning on a wild pitch before Clay Dungan came back to do the same thing in the second to tie the ballgame after leading off the inning with a single to center. Brandt Nowaskie recorded an infield hit later in the frame that was thrown away by the Aces second baseman into the stands, allowing Kyle Moore to score from second to put ISU on top.
 
Evansville (17-38) answered back in the fourth with two runs of their own after a pair of doubles and a fielding error as well as a single through the left side to go back on top 3-2. Travis Tokarek pushed the UE lead to 4-2 in the fifth inning on a sac fly.
 
Indiana State pitching held Evansville to just four runs in the game, but the Sycamore defense played a major factor in the outcome, making several tough plays throughout the day as well as limiting the Aces to just a run in both the first and fifth innings when UE had opportunities to string together crooked numbers on the scoreboard.
 
Will Kincanon overcame early struggles to give the Sycamores 6.2 quality innings in his start, preserving the ISU bullpen as senior Ryan Keaffaber finished the final 2.1 innings of play. Kincanon allowed four runs on seven hits but struck out 10 Aces and walked just three in his outing.
 
Keaffaber was strong out of the bullpen, allowing just two hits while striking out a pair. The southpaw improved to 4-5 on the season in the win.
 
It wasn't until the sixth inning that the Sycamore offense recovered from their slump in which UE's Connor Strain had retired 10-straight batters. Senior Tony Rosselli led off the inning with a single to center before Dane Giesler came away with another base hit through the left side in the very next at bat. Senior Jeff Zahn, who has been swing the bat well as of late, pushed across Rosselli later in the inning with a single out to right. It was one of two hits for the Newburgh, Indiana native on the day.
 
The spark in the sixth, helped ISU put twelve batters in the box in the seventh as the Trees pushed across seven runs to take a commanding 10-4 lead. Connor Strain was charged with two of the runs while UE closer Brandon Gomer was hit with four runs, none of which were earned as ISU capitalized on a pair of errors in the inning. The Sycamores also showed their patience at the plate, drawing four walks in the inning, two of which were when the bases were loaded.
 
Cody Gardner led off the inning with a single to left before Tyler Friis was sent to first after being hit by a pitch which ended Strain's day. Looking to play small ball, the Sycamores put the bunt on with arguably their best hitter in Rosselli. The senior executed the bunt to perfection but Gomer mishandled the ball as Rosselli reached to load the bases. Dungan pushed across the tying run with a groundout to second to make it 4-4.
 
That was when the wheels fell off for the Aces. Zahn walked to load the bases and later preserved the inning as he hustled to second on a groundball, forcing UE second baseman Trey Hair to throw away the ball which allowed two more runs to score. The Sycamores would draw two bases loaded walks and finally put an exclamation on the inning when Friis single to right two score two runs.
 
Back-to-back doubles from Rosselli and Dungan added a run in the eighth before Zahn put a ball on top of the Cardinals practice facility in right field for his fifth home run of the season.
 
Rosselli led the way for the offense, going 3-for-4 with three runs scored. Zahn added three RBIs in the games as he went 2-for-3 with a homer while Clay Dungan added a pair of hits and two RBIs. The top five in the ISU batting order finished 9-for-22 with seven RBIs.
 
The Sycamores will face either Dallas Baptist or Bradley in the winner's bracket Thursday. First pitch is slated for 5 p.m. ET. All games of the 2017 MVC Championship will air live on The Valley On ESPN3. Fans can also listen to the action on Sycamore All-Access via GoSycamores.com with Brian Fritz calling the action.  
 
For the latest information on the Sycamore Baseball team, be sure to visit GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.