Kyle OBriens two-out, two-RBI single in the bottom of the ninth drove home the winning runs to give Illinois State a 7-6 win over Evansville Friday night at Redbird Field in front of 943 fans. The win was Illinois States first Missouri Valley Conference win of the year and the second straight game the Birds have left their opponents on the field in the bottom of the ninth.
Jay Molina and Matt Bolt led off the inning with back-to-back walks against Evansville reliever Mark Murray, the NCAA Division I save leader. Ryan Anetsberger then executed a perfect sac bunt to move Bolt and Molina to second and third. After Kris Jenkins was intentionally walked to load the bases, Nick Crist struck out for the second out of the inning. OBrien then stepped up to the plate and worked the count to 2-2. The left-handed hitting sophomore then roped the ball to leftfield, scoring both Molina and Bolt, before getting mobbed by his teammates at second base.
The Redbirds also won in similar fashion against Purdue on Wednesday night on a two-strike, two-out, two-RBI hit by Lee Fischer.
Picking up the win for Illinois State (14-18, 1-6) was reliever Eric Theisen (3-0). The sophomore pitched two innings and did not give up a hit while striking out two. Matt Fowles started the game for Illinois State and gave up all six earned runs in six innings pitched.
Murray (6-1) took the loss for the Purple Aces (28-9, 7-3). The righthander leads the nation in saves, but he did not have his best stuff on Friday, as he went 1.2 innings and gave up two earned runs while walking three.
Evansville jumped out to a big lead early as they put up five runs in the second after the two teams had a scoreless first. Jeff Fontaine led off the inning with a double and moved up to third on a Dustin Knight single. Pat Tumilty then lined out to right to bring in the first run of the game. It appeared ISU would get out of the inning with only one run allowed, however a two-out Kyle Smith single with the bases loaded plated two and Erik Lis followed with a double to bring in two more, making it a 5-0 score before the Birds could get out of the inning.
Smith would add one more run for the Purple Aces in the top of the sixth, when he doubled in Robbie Minor from first base to make it a 6-0 Evansville lead.
Illinois State would respond in a large way in the bottom of the sixth as Anetsberger and Jenkins singles were followed up by an RBI single from Brian Davis to get the 'Birds on the board. Blake Schoonover would provide an RBI single of his own and Fischer provided the big blow of the inning with a two-out, two-RBI triple to right, making it a 6-4 game at the end of the sixth.
The Redbirds would cut it to one run in the bottom of the seventh as Anetsberger singled in Molina to cut the Evansville lead to 6-5, setting the stage for the comeback in the bottom of the ninth.
The two teams will play their second game of the three-game series tomorrow beginning at 2:00 p.m. from Redbird Field. Dan Frega (2-6) will make the start for Illinois State while Matt Brinkman (2-0) will take the hill for Evansville.
