The University of Evansville baseball team sent their seniors off in style in their Braun Stadium finale, rallying past Missouri State 4-3, earning a big Missouri Valley Conference series victory.
“What a great win for our seniors”, said Aces head coach Wes Carroll. “It started on the hill, with our pitchers delivering clutch performances. We got some great defensive performances in the field. And then down the stretch, our batters had some great competitive at-bats.”
The Aces sent out senior left-hander Alex Weigand, who delivered four shutout innings to open the game. However, his Bears counterpart, Davis Schwab matched Weigand, as the game remained scoreless going into the fifth frame.
That’s when Missouri State would finally break through on Weigand, taking the lead in the fifth, then adding to their pad in the sixth inning, building a 2-0 advantage. For the day, Weigand went five innings, allowing two runs on six hits, while striking out five. The Bears would tack on one more in the top of the seventh, putting Evansville in a 3-0 hole.
However, after being held scoreless through six frames, the Aces offense would come to life, loading up the bases, then pushing across their first run when A.J. Fritz grounded into a double play. Later in the inning, freshman pinch hitter Eric Roberts delivered a clutch two-out RBI single through the right side of the infield, driving in senior third baseman Sam Troyer, cutting the Missouri State lead to 3-2.
Then in the eighth, Evansville would load up the bases, then a wild pitch would allow junior shortstop Craig Shepherd would race home with the game-tying run. Freshman second baseman Danny Borgstrom would follow that up with a sacrifice fly to left, bringing in sophomore first baseman Tanner Craig, giving the Aces the lead, 4-3.
Senior right-hander Austin Allinger (1-2) would come in to put down a Missouri State rally in the top of the eighth. Then in the ninth, after the Bears opened the inning with a walk and a single, Allinger would halt MSU in its tracks, getting the final three outs of the game.
The victory improves Evansville’s overall record to 23-24 and 10-8 in Missouri Valley Conference play, while Missouri State falls to 16-34 and 7-11 in league play.
The Aces now hit the road to close out the regular season on the road, beginning Tuesday night at Belmont, then wrapping up the season at Illinois State next weekend.
