TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Josue Urdaneta connected on the two-out, two-strike walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning scoring Mike Sears as Indiana State topped Illinois State on Saturday afternoon at Bob Warn Field, 4-3.
 
Sears led off the bottom of the 10th inning with a line drive single up the middle to start the late-inning rally. Grant Magill connected on the sacrifice bunt to move him to second and Seth Gergely grounded out to the second baseman moving Sears 90 feet from home plate with two outs.
 
Urdaneta went down 0-2 against Illinois State (10-15, 2-6 MVC) reliever Elijah Dale (2-3) before turning on a hanging slider and driving the ball over the infield and onto the outfield grass in right field. Sears touched home and Urdaneta reached first for the walk-off single as the Sycamore (17-12, 7-1 MVC) dugout spilled onto the turf in celebration.
 
Indiana State played from behind throughout the contest as Illinois State jumped ahead early with a 2-0 lead in the top of the second. Mike Sears tied the game up in the fifth with a two-run home run and Randal Diaz connected on a late RBI groundout in the bottom of the eighth scoring Gergely to make it a 3-3 ballgame and send the contest into extra innings.
 
ISU's pitching staff came through in the clutch throughout the contest. Brennyn Cutts entered the game in the top of the seventh with two-on, one-out and escaped a bases-loaded jam with an inning-ending strikeout.
 
Zach Davidson also escaped a two-on, one-out situation in the eighth to keep the game within striking distance. Jared Spencer (3-1) surrendered a walk to lead off the top of the ninth before retiring the final six Redbirds in order to record his third win of the season.
 
Keegan Watson and Sears both posted multi-hit games as the Sycamores connected on nine hits throughout the contest. Watson added a double in the fifth inning prior to Sears' team-leading 10th home run of the season.
 
Connor Fenlong went 6.1 innings in the start in picking up the no-decision. The redshirt senior retired 10 batters in a row at one point on his way to surrendering seven hits and three runs while walking one and striking out two.
 
Shaydon Kubo and JT Sokolove both had multi-hit games for Illinois State in the loss. All nine Redbird hits were singles.
 
Cameron Mabee went 6.1 innings allowing six hits and two runs while striking out five in the Saturday start. Dale went the final 3.1 innings allowing three hits and two runs while striking out three.
 
How They Scored

• Illinois State took the early 2-0 lead in the top of the second as Auggie Rasmussen and JT Sokolove both connected on RBI singles in the inning.
• The Sycamores tied the game up in the bottom of the fifth inning on Mike Sears' team-leading 10th home run of the season as the two-run blast cleared the left field wall and scored Keegan Watson to make it a 2-2 game.
• Noah Rabin put the Redbirds back in the lead with an RBI fielder's choice scoring Shaydon Kubo to make it a 3-2 game.
• The Sycamores knotted the game at 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth with some small ball as Seth Gergely singled and stole second base before coming around to score on Randal Diaz's RBI grounder.
• Josue Urdaneta kept his eight-game hitting streak alive with a two-out, walk-off single down to right field scoring Mike Sears to cap the scoring in Indiana State's 4-3 win over the Redbirds.

News & Notes

• The Indiana State pitching staff's scoreless inning streak came to an end with one out in the top of the second inning. The Sycamores had held their opponents scoreless for 23.1 consecutive innings dating back to the bottom of the sixth inning on April 3 at UIC.
• The 23.1 scoreless inning streak marked the ISU pitching staff's second-longest scoreless streak in the Mitch Hannahs coaching era. ISU held opponents scoreless for 27.1 consecutive innings back in the 2014 season over a four-game stretch from March 30 – April 5 against Illinois State, Austin Peay, and Wichita State.
• Luis Hernandez extended his on-base streak to 22 consecutive games following his single down the third base line in the bottom of the fourth inning.
• Josue Urdaneta continued his season-best eight-game hitting streak with the walk-off single in the 10th inning. He's posted six multi-hit contests over the streak with RBI in five of the last six games.
• Seth Gergely extended his on-base streak to 13 games after his leadoff single in the bottom of the eighth inning.
• Mike Sears became the first Sycamore to reach double-digit home runs since Max Wright connected on a team-leading 16 in the 2021 season.
• Sears becomes just the seventh Sycamore to reach double-digit home runs in a single season in the Hannahs coaching era.
• Indiana State clinched its fourth consecutive series win over Illinois State dating back to the 2019 season with Saturday's win.
• The win was ISU's first walk-off win of the 2023 season and first since the Sycamores walked off Evansville on April 22, 2022, on Keegan Watson's game-winning home run in the 7-6 win at Bob Warn Field.
• The Sycamores improve to 2-2 in extra-inning games this season.

Up Next
Indiana State continues Missouri Valley play this weekend as the Sycamores host the Redbirds in the final game of the weekend series on Sunday afternoon at Bob Warn Field. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. and will be streamed live on 105.5 The Legend.
 
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