CARBONDALE, Ill. – Top-seed Dallas Baptist rallied to defeat No. 2 Indiana State, 12-8, in 11 innings to claim the 2021 Missouri Valley Conference Championship and the League's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.
 
Indiana State (30-19) will now await its postseason fate following the MVC Championship. Postseason berths will be awarded during the NCAA Selection Show Monday afternoon at noon ET on ESPN2.
 
MVC Baseball All-Tournament Team
C -    Christian Boulware, DBU
1B -  Philip Archer, Southern Illinois
2B – Jackson Glenn, DBU
3B -  Brendan Dougherty, Bradley
SS - Jordan Schaffer, Indiana State
SS -  Blayne Jones, DBU
OF – JT Weber, Southern Illinois
OF – Ellison Hanna II, Indiana State
OF -  River Town, DBU
OF -  Jace Grady, DBU (MVP)
P -    Luke Eldred, DBU
P -   Geremy Guerrero, Indiana State
 
Elite 17
Geremy Guerrero, Indiana State (3.93 GPA in Intelligence Analysis)
 
Tied at six entering extra innings, Dallas Baptist led off the 10^th with a double that eventually came around to score on a sacrifice fly to put DBU on top. With two runners on and two outs, Jordan Schaffer singled to left to bring in the tying run and extend the game to the 11^th. The Patriots went on to score five runs on four hits to jump ahead five runs. Aaron Beck homered in the bottom of the 11^th but ISU was unable to rally back.
 
DBU threw seven pitchers in the game, but Friday night starting pitcher Dominic Hamel threw four pitches in the 10^th to earn the win, improving to 12-2 on the year. Connor Fenlong (4-2) took the loss for the Sycamores after allowing the go-ahead run in the 11^th, finishing with 1.2 innings pitched, two hits.
 
Jordan Schaffer finished with a career high five base hits in six at bats. Grant Magill and Sean Ross tallied three hits each. ISU struggled uncharacteristically in the field, finishing with a season high five errors leading to four unearned runs for DBU.
 
Jace Grady homered in the top of the first to give Dallas Baptist the early lead and Indiana State answered back with two runs of their own. After loading the bases and two outs on the board, catcher Grant Magill singled to the gap in left.
 
The Sycamores answered with two more runs in the second inning to extend the lead. Josue Urdaneta doubled, and Jordan Schaffer singled to give ISU back-to-back hits. Urdaneta made a jump on a dirt ball and scored from third. Max Wright would later score after Brian Fuentes singled to left.
 
Urdaneta scored for the second time in the game in the fourth inning. After leading off being hit-by-pitch, the second baseman reached third before coming home when Ellison Hanna II flew out to right field to extend the Sycamore lead to 5-1 on the sacrifice fly.
 
DBU would get two runs back in the fifth when Blayne Jones hit a two-run home run to close the gap to two runs. Grady connected on his second home run of the game and third in the last three games when he closed the gap to one run in the sixth.
 
Zach Frey went a career long five innings while striking out four in just his fourth start of the season. Connor Cline entered in the sixth with a runner on first and no outs. DBU would move the runner to second on a ground ball before a failed pickoff attempt allowed him to move to third. The Pats tied the game with a sacrifice fly from Boulware.
 
Cline pitched 3.1 innings in relief, allowing two hits while striking out two.
 
The Sycamores jumped on top of DBU starting pitcher Jared Pettitte as the left-hander was able to record just one out while walking two and allowing a pair of runs.
 
Indiana State set the MVC Tournament single-game record with 20 runners left on base.
 
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