March 3, 2007
Box Score
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -
Twice this season the Illinois State Redbird baseball team has extended games into extra innings and unfortunately for the `Birds the result has been the same, two losses. On Saturday, the Redbirds took advantage of a late home run to send the game into extra frames, but the Louisville Cardinals (6-4) answered at home and won a 10-9 slugfest in eleven innings over ISU (2-6) in the second game of a three-game weekend series.
ISU's Dan Sorce (0-1) suffered the loss for the Redbirds in relief of starter Ryan Copeland, after he allowed the two go-ahead runs in the final frame for the Cardinals. Louisville's Colby Wark (1-1) earned the win in three and two thirds innings of work, as he allowed just two earned runs on three hits while striking out seven Redbird batters to secure the victory.
Illinois State head coach Jim Brownlee was proud of the way his team battled all day, but would have like to seen his team get rewarded for their effort.
"We've had two extra-inning battles now, one with Arkansas and now Louisville, and both times our guys fought hard but didn't get the result they deserved," said Brownlee. "Obviously, it's disappointing when you head into the eleventh with a lead and chance to win the game and lose. We knew Louisville was a good team and were not going to go away, but we would have liked to get rewarded for the hard work today."
The Cardinals got on the scoreboard first courtesy of a sacrifice fly from Chris Dominguez in the first inning and then added another run in the bottom of the second inning on a solo home run by Isaiah Howes to take an early 2-0 lead. However, the Redbirds would answer with two runs in the top of the third inning to tie the score at 2-2. Dan Weston scored first when Ryan Anetsberger reached on a fielder's choice and Collin Salzenstein later scored on an infield single by Jesse Griswold.
After a scoreless fourth inning, the Redbirds exploded for five runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a 7-2 lead. Griswold got the scoring started on a three-run triple to right-center field and later scored on an error for the fourth run of the inning. Kevin Konsler then scored while Kyle Cherney got caught in a run-down to widen the ISU advantage to five runs. The Cardinals would then cut into that lead on a two-run home run by Logan Johnson in the bottom of the inning to make the score 7-4 headed into the sixth inning.
A two-run bottom half of the seventh inning by Louisville would then cut the ISU lead to one at 7-6. After a scoreless top half of the eighth inning for ISU, Louisville took the lead in the bottom of the eighth inning on back-to-back RBI singles by Justin McClanahan and Daniel Burton, which made the score 8-7 in favor of Louisville with ISU having just three outs to make a comeback.
After Matt Bolt lined out and Anetsberger struck out to begin the inning, Kevin Dubler stood at the plate as the last chance for the Redbirds. Dubler quickly rose to the challenge, however, and launched a solo home run over the wall in right-center field to knot the score at 8-8. Louisville had its shot with runners on second and third and two outs in the bottom of the inning, but reliever Kyle O'Brien forced Logan Johnson to pop up and send the game to extra innings.
Both squads went scoreless in the tenth inning to extend the game into the eleventh inning. With one out in the top of the frame, Bolt homered to right field, his first of the season, to put the Redbirds up 9-8 and put Louisville in a corner. The Cardinals would answer, though, and scored two runs off Sorce in the bottom half of the inning to win the extra-inning contest 10-9.
Griswold finished the game 3-for-6 with four RBI to lead the Redbirds, while Bolt, Anetsberger and Dubler each chipped in a RBI. Boomer Whiting paved the way for the Cardinals, as he finished 4-for-5 with four runs scored and a RBI.
The finale of the three-game weekend set between the Redbirds and the Cardinals will take place at noon on Sunday at Patterson Stadium. Senior Luke Baughman (0-1) will take the hill for ISU hoping to help his team avoid a sweep at the hands of Louisville.
