“Such a special day for this extraordinary group of men. They really responded from a non-competitive day at the yard yesterday and delivered a great performance today,” said Aces head baseball coach Wes Carroll. “On the mound, we got competitive outings from everyone and it was great to see the home runs from Borgstrom, Widder, and Craig. Senior Day tomorrow to send off our four guys that have been an enormous part of our turnaround.”
Game One: Evansville 5, Indiana State 4 (8 inn.)
An evenly played contest from start to finish, Friday’s first game of the doubleheader was well controlled by both team’s starting pitchers. On the mound for the Aces, freshman Donovan Schultz allowed a run in the first inning, but quickly settled in.
Evansville answered in the bottom of the second with a solo homer off the bat of Danny Borgstrom, notching his ninth dinger of the 2021 campaign, tying the game at one.
Indiana State responded in the top of the third with a run on a sacrifice fly that regained a 2-1 advantage for the Sycamores.
Brent Widder ended the trading of runs in the bottom half of the third, giving Evansville its first lead of the day on a two-run home run to left, scoring Simon Scherry and handing the Aces a 3-2 lead.
The seven-inning contest was tied at three by the Sycamores in the top of the sixth with an RBI base-hit from Grant Magill that would prove to be a crucial run, sending the game to extras.
With the international tiebreaker in effect, Indiana State took a 4-3 lead in the top of the eighth, bunting the runner to third and scoring said runner on a sacrifice fly.
Evansville mirrored the Sycamores effort, laying down a bunt to advance Scherry to third, but it was a base-hit by Troy Beilsmith that scored the tying run. After Tanner Craig reached on an error, advancing to second with Beilsmith moving to third, Borgstrom was walked to load the bases.
Following a strikeout that marked the second out of the inning, Kenton Crews came to the plate. On an 0-2 pitch, Crews chopped a ball to the shortstop, who quickly fired to first. Crews utilized his speed to beat out the throw, being called safe at first, walking-off with a 5-4 win for Evansville.
The play at first would be reviewed and the call on the field confirmed.
On in relief, Jakob Meyer earned his fifth win of the season, pitching two innings, not allowing an earned run and striking-out one.
Game Two: Evansville 5, Indiana State 1
Evansville’s offense picked-up right where it left off in game two on Saturday’s doubleheader. The Aces recorded their first run of the contest in the second as Scherry reached on a fielding error by the Sycamore third baseman, scoring Crews.
In the third, Evansville added two more runs as Craig smashed his 12th homer of the season, this time a two-run blast to center, boosting UE’s lead to 3-0.
Aces starter Jake McMahill was impressive on the mound for Evansville, allowing just one hit through three innings and working out of jam in the fourth to preserve the Aces lead.
Indiana State struck for what would be its only run of the game in the fifth as Schaffer lifted a home run to left, narrowing Evansville’s lead to 3-1.
In the fifth, Evansville got its run back and then one more with an RBI double that continued Crews’ hot streak and a sacrifice fly from Wilkes as the Aces held a 5-1 lead.
McMahill’s outing came to a close after the sixth as the redshirt junior allowed one run on seven hits, sitting down three Sycamores via strikeout.
Evansville’s relief pitching was just as sharp as Michael Parks and Drew Dominik shutout Indiana State over the final three innings, combining to throw a trio of strikeouts as Evansville captured the 5-1 win and the doubleheader sweep.
The Aces and Sycamores meet for both teams’ regular-season finales on Evansville’s Senior Day on Saturday at 1 PM at German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium in Evansville.
