EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Evansville senior starter Shane Harris tossed six strong innings on Thursday night, and the Purple Aces broke things open with nine runs in the seventh and eighth innings to post a series-opening 12-2 run-rule victory over the Southern Illinois Salukis at German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium in Evansville.
“It’s great to get back in the win column obviously,” said UE head coach Wes Carroll. “It really started on the mound for us tonight with the effort that we got out of Shane Harris. He got some early swings tonight, which kept his pitch-count low, and that really helped him settle in and set the tone for us.
“Offensively, we got a lot of hits early, but also left a lot of guys on base, and it felt like we should have been up more early on. But, the guys never wavered, and finally, in winning time, we were able to string together a lot of good at-bats and we were finally able to put up the big inning. Overall, I really liked the energy that our guys came to the park with today and we need to carry that over to tomorrow night.”
Harris set the tone early for UE, recording a pair of strikeouts in the first inning, as he retired the first 12 men he faced. Graduate outfielder Mark Shallenberger then led off the game with a double to left-center field and he eventually scored on an RBI ground out by graduate third baseman Brent Widder, as UE took a 1-0 lead just three batters into the game.
Shallenberger then added a two-run double off the wall in left-center field in the second inning to push the lead to 3-0. Evansville would collect seven hits in the first three innings, but left five men stranded on base, as the lead remained 3-0.
Southern Illinois would finally get its first hit and run of the game off of Harris in the fifth inning, and tacked on another run in the sixth inning, but he buckled down and got a fly out from SIU’s clean-up batter to end the sixth inning with a 3-2 lead. Harris (2-4) would earn the victory in just his second start of the year, giving up just two runs on five hits in 6.0 innings of work with three strikeouts against no walks.
SIU threatened to tie the game in the seventh inning, putting two men on base, but reliever Drew Fieger got a pop up to end the frame and keep Evansville in the lead. Then, in the seventh inning, Evansville took advantage of extreme wildness from the SIU bullpen to plate six runs on a lead-off single, an error, seven walks and a pair of sacrifice flies. UE then enacted the run-rule in the eighth inning on a run-scoring ground-rule double by junior outfielder Harrison Taubert, a run-scoring passed ball, and a walk-off RBI single by Shallenberger.
Shallenberger led UE by going 3-for-4 with two doubles and four RBI. Taubert, graduate first baseman Chase Hug and junior catcher Evan Waggoner also had two-hit outings.
With the victory, Evansville improves to 10-15 overall and 1-3 in the Missouri Valley Conference. Southern Illinois, meanwhile, falls to 17-9 overall and 3-1 in the Valley. The series will continue on Friday night at 6 p.m. in a game that can be heard live in the Tri-State on 107.1 FM-WJPS and seen live on ESPN+. Freshman left-hander Kenton Deverman (2-1, 4.46 ERA) will get the start for UE.
