They had to wait out 19 hour-plus rain delay, but the University of Evansville baseball team kept on swinging, on their way to a 9-2 victory over Illinois State, in the opening game of their regular season series finale at Braun Stadium Friday afternoon.
The game was picked up in the bottom of the fourth inning, with the Purple Aces leading 5-1 and with runners on first and second with one out. That’s when freshman first basemen Tanner Craig and senior outfielder Dalton Horstmeier picked up where they left off the night before. Craig delivered a single through the right side of the infield, scoring senior third baseman Stewart Nelson from second. Then,Horstmeier followed that up with a single through the left side of the infield, scoring sophomore outfielder Kenton Crews, giving Evansville a 7-1 advantage after four frames.
“Offensively, we just kind of caught fire a little bit, especially in the middle of our line-up”, said Aces Head Coach Wes Carroll. “You saw what Tanner Craig and Dalton Horstmeier, from a numbers standpoint, did. That’s really the first time all year we’ve had guys with multiple RBIs in a game, and that’s the result you’re going to get.”
On the hill, sophomore right hand reliever Adam Lukas took over for freshman starter Adam Ruesch, who dominated after a rough first inning the night before.
“It started on the mound”, said Carroll. “With what we got from Austin Ruesch, really commanding his fastball from both sides of the plate, being able to get his change-up and swing-and-miss in those even counts and being able to get some of those breaking ball strikeouts was crucial.”
Lukas picked up where Ruesch left off, striking out six, while making only one mistake, a solo home run off the bat of Tyson Hays.
“Handing the ball off to Adam Lukas after the delay, coming back from a restart”, said Carroll. “I thought Adam was outstanding today.”
However, that was erased by the team of Craig and Horstmeier again, as the two combined for back to back double in the eighth. Evansville would go onto take a 9-2 victory, with Lukas picking up the win in five innings of shutout work.
The win improves the Aces record to 12-25 overall and 3-16 in the Missouri Valley Conference, while the loss drops Illinois State to 20-28 overall and 7-12 in the MVC.
Game two of Friday’s doubleheader was postponed due to incoming weather and has been pushed back to Saturday at noon, as the front end of a Senior Day doubleheader.
