ST. CHARLES, Mo. – University of Southern Indiana Baseball lost the opener at Lindenwood University, 9-4, Thursday evening in St. Charles, Missouri. USI is 25-28 overall and 13-12 in the OVC, while Lindenwood goes to 27-26, 14-10 OVC.
With the loss, USI falls to sixth in the OVC standings. The Screaming Eagles move to a game behind the Lions, who are fourth, and a half game behind Southeast Missouri State University, which was leading the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 11-0, at press time.
The Screaming Eagles spotted the Lions a 5-0 lead through the first two innings. Lindenwood got a tally in the first and four in the second for the 5-0 lead, scoring all of its runs off USI starting left-hander Jake Porter.
USI started cutting the deficit in the fourth inning on an RBI-single by junior leftfielder Hunter Miller, scoring sophomore rightfielder Cameron Boyd. Boyd had singled to start the inning and extended his hitting streak to a team-best 18 games.
Miller would come across the plate with USI’s second run of the game on an RBI ground out by sophomore second baseman Anthony Umbach to make the score 5-2.
The Eagles closed the gap to one, 5-4, with another pair of runs in the top of the sixth. Miller scored for the second time in the game, crossing the plate on a sac fly by Umbach, while junior catcher Micajah Wall marked USI’s fourth tally on a single by junior shortstop Clayton Slack.
The Lions re-extended the margin to three runs, 7-4, with a two-run blast in the bottom of the seventh. Lindenwood would add two more runs in the eighth for the 9-4 final.
Offensively, USI was led by Slack and Holiday with three hits each, while Miller scored twice and Umbach had a pair of RBIs.
Porter (4-5) started and took the loss for the Eagles on the mound. The junior left-hander allowed five runs on seven hits and two walks, while striking out two in three frames of work.
USI got a strong outing from freshman right-hander Colin Wolfe out of the bullpen. Wolfe blanked the Lions for three innings on two hits, striking out three.
