PEORIA, Ill. – The University of Evansville baseball team extended its winning streak to seven games on Saturday afternoon, as the Purple Aces posted a 6-1 victory over the Bradley Braves at Dozier Park in Peoria, Illinois.
“Today was a great win, and we continue to play good baseball,” said UE head coach Wes Carroll. “It really started on the mound for us today, as Donovan Schultz gave us a superb effort, giving us seven strong innings. Then, I thought that Max Hansmann was outstanding for his two innings, and really had a nice three-pitch mix going today.
“Offensively, we did enough today. Obviously, Mark Shallenberger had a big three-run home run for us, which was huge. Harrison Taubert also came through with a big two-out RBI hit to extend our lead from four to five runs to really put things out of reach today. It’s always great to win a series on a Saturday, but we have to come to the park looking for more tomorrow.”
Evansville took an early 1-0 lead in the second inning on an RBI double to right-center field by senior shortstop Simon Scherry. UE then broke things open with a four-run fourth inning, as junior outfielder Ty Rumsey opened the scoring in the frame with an RBI single to right field, before graduate outfielder Mark Shallenberger crushed a long three-run home run to right field to give UE a 5-0 lead.
Bradley’s lone run of the game came in the fourth inning, as the Braves strung together three-straight two-out base hits off of UE starter Donovan Schultz to trim the UE lead to 5-1. But, Schultz worked out of the jam, and would shut down the Braves the rest of the way. Overall, Schultz (2-1) earned the victory by limiting Bradley to a single run on seven hits in a career-best 7.0 innings of work with four strikeouts.
Junior outfielder Harrison Taubert would provide UE with an insurance run with a two-out RBI hit in the eighth inning to give UE a 6-1 lead. Sophomore reliever Max Hansmann would make sure that the lead would hold up, as he tossed 2.0 no-hit, scoreless innings with three strikeouts to nail down the victory.
Senior designated hitter Kip Fougerousse led UE at the plate by going 3-for-5 with a double. Scherry and Shallenberger both had two-hit days as well for UE, which out-hit Bradley, 13-7.
With the victory, Evansville improves to 21-17 overall and 9-5 in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Purple Aces have not only won seven-straight, but UE has also won 11 of its last 12 games overall. Bradley, meanwhile, drops to 10-26 overall and 4-10 in the MVC with the loss. The series will conclude on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. in a game that can be heard live in the Tri-State area on 107.1 FM-WJPS and seen live on ESPN+.
