TERRE HAUTE – Facing a morning elimination game for the second consecutive day, Austin Allinger and Trey Hair combined to help extend the season for the University of Evansville baseball team as the Purple Aces handed Southern Illinois a 3-2 loss at Bob Warn Field.
Allinger, a freshman, allowed just four hits over eight innings, and Hair made it count, firing a three-run blast to dead center in the fifth to put the Aces (29-26) ahead. It was the ninth homer of the year for the junior out of Firth, Neb., and it secured a fifth win for Allinger.
With the win, UE will return to Bob Warn Field later this afternoon to take on reigning conference champion Dallas Baptist. The Aces will be in an elimination game once again and will need to beat DBU twice in order to punch their ticket to Saturday evening’s championship game.
SIU, meanwhile, finished its season with a 31-25-1 record on the year.
NOTES: UE has homered 49 times this season, which is the most since leaving the park 53 times in 2010 … Korbin Williams and Jonathan Ramon, who is out for the season with an injury, are the first Aces to record double-digit homers this season since the NCAA changed its bat standards prior to the 2011 season … The Aces are 25-34 all-time in the Missouri Valley Tournament … Friday marked the first extra-innings win for the Aces in Missouri Valley Championship history … The Aces last won two MVC tournament games in 2013 … UE’s lone conference tournament trophy was lifted in 2006.
