EVANSVILLE, Ind.- University of Southern Indiana Baseball (9-12, 0-1 OVC) opened Ohio Valley Conference play Friday night with a 9-7 extra-inning loss against Tennessee Tech University (13-9, 1-0 OVC) at USI Baseball Field.
USI jumped out to a one-run lead in the first inning with a deep sacrifice fly by senior infielder Tucker Ebest (Austin, Texas), which drove in senior outfielder Ren Tachioka (Saitama, Japan) following his leadoff single. The score remained locked at 1-0 until the bottom of the fourth, where the Screaming Eagles extended their lead to 2-0 on a freshman outfielder Cameron Boyd (Villa Hills, Kentucky) RBI single.
Tennessee Tech stormed back with three runs in the top of the fifth, taking a 3-2 lead. Freshman pitcher Grant Parsons (Owensboro, Kentucky) exited the game at that point despite a career-high nine strikeouts in 4.2 innings.
After Tennessee Tech extended their lead to 4-2 in the top of the sixth, USI fought back with a two-run bottom half of the inning to tie the game with an RBI double from junior infielder Ricardo Van Grieken (Merida, Venezuela).
The Golden Eagles snatched the lead back due to two USI errors before extending it further with a two-run top of the eighth to push the lead to 7-4.
Southern Indiana made a push in the bottom of the eighth putting up two runs. However, USI extended the game in the bottom of the ninth by tying the game on a fielder’s choice up the middle by junior outfielder Terrick Thompson-Allen (Sioux City, Iowa), which scored senior pitcher Trent Robinson (Louisville, Kentucky) and sent the game into extras.
The Golden Eagles came out in extra innings swinging, as they tacked on two runs in the top of the tenth inning. USI was unable to push anything across in the home half, resulting in sophomore pitcher Will Kiesel’s (Wadesville, Indiana) first loss of the season.
