Notching a season-high 15 hits, Evansville’s offense helped deliver a 6-5 win on Sunday in the series finale as the Aces split a four-game set with Southern Illinois at German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium in Evansville.
“Found a way to finish the weekend with a win. Clearly we needed a deep pitching performance from our starter Donovan Schultz and he delivered.,” said Evansville head baseball coach Wes Carroll. “We also got an outstanding performance from Shane Harris and Jakob Meyer. Tanner Craig had a big day and we overcame leaving 10 runners on base to get the win. ”
After a tough start, Evansville showed its resiliency, battling back. The Salukis scored three runs off Aces starter Donovan Schultz in the top of the first inning to take an early advantage. Evansville got a run back in the bottom half of the first as Simon Scherry drove a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Kenton Crews.
Following the first inning, Schultz locked in and was impressive on the mound, recording three-straight innings sitting SIU down in order in the second, third, and fourth innings. Evansville continued to get steady production from its offense, tying the game in the third. Tanner Craig added to his monster weekend with a solo home run in the third to trim SIU’s lead to one at 3-2. with the bases loaded, Robbie Wilkes reached on a fielder’s choice that scored Scherry, tying the game at three.
Evansville took its first lead of the afternoon in the fourth, as Scherry again was involved, ripping a double to right that scored Ben Komonosky.
SIU would retake the lead in the fifth with a two-run base hit that put the Salukis back up, 5-4. As was true in the first, Evansville answered each of the Salukis attacks, scoring a pair of runs in the bottom half of the fifth. Wilkes tallied his second RBI of the day as Danny Borgstrom scored to tie the game on a groundout. The Aces would go in front for good later in the inning with an RBI single to center from Brent Widder that plated Eric Roberts, handing UE a 6-5 lead.
On in relief of Donovan Schultz, Shane Harris looked dominant. The redshirt freshman turned-in three innings of work, allowing just one hit and sitting down three Salukis via strikeouts to preserve the Evansville lead.
In the ninth with SIU down to its final three outs, Jakob Meyer tallied his team-high sixth save of the season, pitching a perfect inning, including a strikeout as the Aces earned the 6-5 win.
Evansville returns to Missouri Valley Conference competition on Friday with the series-opening game of a four-game set with Valparaiso in Valparaiso, Ind.
