Sophomore designated hitter Mike Saunches went 3-for-5 with three runs and five RBI, leading Illinois State to a 12-5 victory and a 3-1 series win against Missouri Valley Conference foe Creighton at Redbird Field Sunday.
For the weekend Saunches led a powerful Redbird offensive attack that scored 48 runs and belted out 63 hits in the four game series by going 10-for-17 (.588), with eight runs, three doubles, two homers and 12 RBI.
Mikes swinging the bat pretty well right now and theres room for improvement believe it or not, but he certainly had a good weekend, head coach Jeff Stewart said.
With a strong wind blowing out, Creighton jumped on the board in the top of the first when left fielder Tyler Davies hit the first of his two home runs on the day to give the Bluejays a 1-0 lead.
The Redbirds countered with five runs in their half of the inning. Saunches belted a bases loaded double to left center to plate the first three ISU runs of the afternoon. Jon Peacock delivered an RBI-double to score Saunches and Jeremy Accardo knocked in Peacock with a single to left to end the scoring in the inning.
After Creighton added one more run in the second inning to make it 5-2, ISU scored two in the bottom half of the second when Ed Tolzien hit a two-run homer to left after Jake Perganson led off the inning with a walk.
The Bluejays scored twice more in the third, when Scott Allen tripled down the left field line to plate Chris Hinrichs who drew a lead-off walk. Allen scored on a Dan Lawler sacrifice fly to cut the Illinois State lead to 7-4.
Accardo tripled to open the third inning for the Redbirds and scored on a Scott Legan infield single. Ryan Cantrell drove in Legan with a double to left center to give ISU a 9-4 lead.
A couple of weeks ago I said that we werent clicking, but this weekend we were probably as close as we can get offensively, Stewart commented on the teams .409 batting average for the series. With 13 errors in the four-game set the defense is a concern according to Stewart.
Saunches scored again in the fourth after leading off the inning with a double and smacked a two-run homer in the sixth that cleared the pine trees in center field. Creighton got one run back in the seventh when Davies hit a homer to right center, but it was too little too late as ISU downed the Bluejays 12-5.
Neil Johnson earned his first victory of the season, throwing six and one-third innings. Johnson struck out six and walked three.
Neil looked good early, but really hasnt had that kind of command lately, Stewart said. With the wind blowing out, I thought it would be nip and tuck the whole game and a real battle. He (Johnson) threw real well and had good control, he just ran out of gas at the end, but if he can continue throwing like that, well be in good shape.
The Redbirds return to action next weekend when they host Southwest Missouri State in a four-game MVC series. Action begins on Friday with a 7 p.m. first pitch.
