BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – University of Evansville pitchers Kevin Reed, Drew Fieger and Max Hansmann combined to silence the Indiana baseball team on Tuesday evening, and graduate outfielder Mark Shallenberger drove in three runs as the visiting Purple Aces knocked off the host Hoosiers, 5-4, at Bart Kaufman Field in Bloomington, Indiana to pick up its fifth-straight victory.
“What a tremendous job today by our pitching staff,” said UE head coach Wes Carroll. “They really stepped up and earned us this victory tonight.
“I thought that Kevin Reed was outstanding today. He was able to do a good job of keeping IU off-balance all night long, and he made some big pitches when he needed to. I also thought that Drew Fieger did a great job of coming in to get the ball to Max Hansmann, who really was dialed in tonight.”
Indiana struck first against Reed with back-to-back doubles in the second inning, but UE quickly responded to tie the game in the third inning on a sacrifice fly by Shallenberger. Shallenberger then gave UE the lead for good in the fourth inning, with a two-run single to push the advantage to 3-1. Senior designated hitter Kip Fougerousse would add another run in the fourth inning on an RBI ground out, before senior shortstop Simon Scherry launched a solo home run into the IU bullpen in left field in the fifth inning to build a 5-1 lead.
The Hoosiers would take advantage of a UE error in the fifth inning to plate a pair of runs off of Reed and cut the advantage to 5-3, but the freshman earned the victory by scattering three runs (two earned) on six hits in 5.0 innings of work while striking out three.
Fieger would take over the sixth inning and worked a perfect sixth with a pair of strikeouts, before IU would scratch across a run in the seventh inning to trim the UE lead to 5-4. That’s when Hansmann took over, retiring all six men he faced over the final two innings to earn his second save of the season.
With the victory, Evansville improves to 19-17 overall and the Purple Aces have now won nine of its last 10 games overall. Indiana, meanwhile, falls to 20-17 overall with the loss. The Purple Aces will continue on the road this weekend, as UE will travel to Peoria, Illinois to battle the Bradley Braves in a three-game Missouri Valley Conference series. The series begins Friday night at 6 p.m. in a game that can be heard live on 107.1 FM-WJPS and seen live on ESPN+.
