The University of Southern Indiana baseball team continued to advance in the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional with an 11-3 victory over Ashland University at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois. USI, the seventh seed, watched its record go to 34-21 overall, while Ashland, the sixth seed, ends game with a 33-21 mark.

The Eagles, with the win, advance to play the top-seeded and sixth-ranked University of Illinois Springfield 7 p.m. Saturday. The winner of the Saturday’s 7 p.m. contest advances automatically to “Championship Monday.”

After spotting Ashland a 1-0 lead in the top of the second, USI senior rightfielder Buddy Johnson (Shelbyville, Indiana) quickly knotted the score, 1-1, in the bottom half of the frame with his second home run of the season. Junior leftfielder Spenser Deom (Tell City, Indiana) gave the Eagles their first lead of the game three hitters later with a RBI-single to score senior third baseman Sam Griggs (Evansville, Indiana).

The score would remain tied, 2-2, until the bottom of the sixth when USI exploded for five runs. Griggs started the rally by knocking in junior second baseman Jacob Fleming (Evansville, Indiana) with the go ahead run, while Deom would drive in the eventual game-winning run with an RBI-walk to extend the lead to 4-2.

Freshman shortstop Ethan Hunter (Terre Haute, Indiana) would cap off the five-run frame with a three-run double to right center to give the Eagles a commanding 7-2 advantage.

USI would seal the victory with four-run rally in the seventh, increasing the margin to 11-2. Senior designated hitter Drake McNamara (Mt. Vernon, Indiana) and junior catcher Logan Brown (Mt. Vernon, Indiana) banged RBI-doubles off the wall, while Griggs and senior first baseman Nick Gobert (Jasper, Indiana) scored Eagles with RBI-singles.

On the mound, junior right-hander Austin Krizan (Mt. Vernon, Indiana) was masterful in earning his first complete game of the season. Krizan (3-3) allowed three runs, two earned on 10 hits, while striking out seven in the nine innings of work.

Continuing coverage of Eagles baseball games this post-season can be found on GoUSIEagles.com. Watch Twitter, Facebook, and GoUSIEagles.com for any schedule changes due to weather.

They had to wait out 19 hour-plus rain delay, but the University of Evansville baseball team kept on swinging, on their way to a 9-2 victory over Illinois State, in the opening game of their regular season series finale at Braun Stadium Friday afternoon.

The game was picked up in the bottom of the fourth inning, with the Purple Aces leading 5-1 and with runners on first and second with one out. That’s when freshman first basemen Tanner Craig and senior outfielder Dalton Horstmeier picked up where they left off the night before. Craig delivered a single through the right side of the infield, scoring senior third baseman Stewart Nelson from second. Then,Horstmeier followed that up with a single through the left side of the infield, scoring sophomore outfielder Kenton Crews, giving Evansville a 7-1 advantage after four frames.

“Offensively, we just kind of caught fire a little bit, especially in the middle of our line-up”, said Aces Head Coach Wes Carroll. “You saw what Tanner Craig and Dalton Horstmeier, from a numbers standpoint, did. That’s really the first time all year we’ve had guys with multiple RBIs in a game, and that’s the result you’re going to get.”

On the hill, sophomore right hand reliever Adam Lukas took over for freshman starter Adam Ruesch, who dominated after a rough first inning the night before.

“It started on the mound”, said Carroll. “With what we got from Austin Ruesch, really commanding his fastball from both sides of the plate, being able to get his change-up and swing-and-miss in those even counts and being able to get some of those breaking ball strikeouts was crucial.”

Lukas picked up where Ruesch left off, striking out six, while making only one mistake, a solo home run off the bat of Tyson Hays.

“Handing the ball off to Adam Lukas after the delay, coming back from a restart”, said Carroll. “I thought Adam was outstanding today.”

However, that was erased by the team of Craig and Horstmeier again, as the two combined for back to back double in the eighth. Evansville would go onto take a 9-2 victory, with Lukas picking up the win in five innings of shutout work.

The win improves the Aces record to 12-25 overall and 3-16 in the Missouri Valley Conference, while the loss drops Illinois State to 20-28 overall and 7-12 in the MVC.

Game two of Friday’s doubleheader was postponed due to incoming weather and has been pushed back to Saturday at noon, as the front end of a Senior Day doubleheader.