EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville baseball team posted its second-straight shutout on Tuesday night, and the Purple Aces launched four home runs, as UE run-ruled the University of Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles, 10-0, at German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium in Evansville.
“Tonight was another good mid-week win for us,” said UE head coach Wes Carroll. “It all started on the mound for us tonight, as I thought that Kevin Reed, Drew Fieger and Nick Smith were outstanding. For us to have back-to-back shutouts really shows how locked in our pitchers have been lately.
“Offensively, I thought the guys were locked in from the start. It was great to see Kip Fougerousse have a huge game tonight, and I thought that Brent Widder and Ty Rumsey had some great swings as well. This was a great effort, and hopefully, we can keep it going this weekend against a very good Indiana State team.”
Freshman Kevin Reed Issued a lead-off walk to start the game, but he quickly bounced back with a double-play ground ball and a strikeout to set the tone for the game. Then, Evansville exploded offensively for seven runs in the bottom of the first inning to grab complete control of the contest.
Senior designated hitter Kip Fougerousse crushed a 434-foot home run to dead center field three batters into the inning to give UE a 2-0 lead. Graduate third baseman Brent Widder would then follow two batters later with another two-run home run to left-center field to push the lead to 4-0. Junior outfielder Ty Rumsey then crushed a ball into Arad McCutchan Stadium down the right-field line four batters later for a three-run shot to give UE a 7-0 cushion.
From there, Reed (4-1) motored through the USI lineup, retiring eight-straight batters in order at one point, as he tossed 5.0 scoreless innings to run his scoreless-innings streak to 11.0. He would limit USI to just three hits and a walk while striking out three to earn the victory.
Fougerousse would add his second home run of the game with a solo shot in the fourth inning, and the Purple Aces would tack on a pair of runs in the fifth inning on a bases-loaded walk to graduate outfielder Mark Shallenberger and an RBI ground out by graduate first baseman Chase Hug to move the lead to 10-0. From there, junior reliever Drew Fieger tossed a perfect sixth inning, and senior reliever Nick Smith tossed a scoreless seventh inning to nail down UE’s second-straight shutout. It is the first time in which UE has posted back-to-back shutouts since Evansville blanked Western Illinois in back-to-back games (4-0 and 8-0) on March 2 and 3, 2018.
Fougerousse led Evansville offensively by going 2-for-4 with two home runs and three RBI. Rumsey and Widder both added home runs for the second-straight game and combined for five RBI.
With the victory, Evansville improved to 28-20 overall, and has now won 19 of its last 24 games. USI, meanwhile, dropped to 22-27 overall with the loss. The Purple Aces will now travel north to Terre Haute, Indiana this weekend to square off with nationally-ranked Indiana State, which is ranked as high as 14th nationally in the various collegiate baseball polls. The series will begin on Friday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. central time in a game that can be seen nationwide on ESPNU. The game is also available on the radio in the Tri-State area on 107.1 FM-WJPS.
