CONWAY, Ark. - Dan Savas worked a season-best eight innings and Daniel Dwyer added a career-high four RBI as Illinois State (5-2, 0-0 Missouri Valley Conference) topped North Dakota (0-2, 0-0 Western Athletic Conference) 5-1 Friday night in Conway, Ark.
Savas (3-0) allowed only an unearned run on five hits and tallied a season-best eight strikeouts to secure his third-straight win. David Suarez struck out a career-best three batters in a scoreless ninth inning. Alex Twenge (0-1) was handed the loss for North Dakota. The right-hander allowed four runs, two earned, in 6.2 innings with five strikeouts and three walks.
Dwyer paced a six-hit Illinois State attack, going 2-for-4 with one walk and four RBI. Dwyer clubbed a two-run double in the third inning and added a two-run single in the seventh inning. Paul DeJong added two hits and Cody Voelker reached base twice for the Redbirds.
Savas worked out of trouble in the first two innings to keep the game scoreless going into the third. In the first inning, North Dakota loaded the bases with one out, but Savas induced a pair of pop outs to end the threat. In the second inning, UND put runners on the corners with two outs before Savas struck out Dalton Parrott swinging to close the frame.
Illinois State jumped to a 2-0 leading with a pair of runs in the third inning. DeJong opened the frame with a single and stole second base. He advanced to third when Sean Beesley reached on a fielder's choice. With runners at the corners, Dwyer lifted a two-run double into the right field corner to give Illinois State the lead for good.
Parrott opened the fifth inning reaching on an error from Redbird right fielder Mason Snyder. Savas then retired Taylor Petersen on a fly ball to center field and induced a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play off the bat of Jeff Campbell. It began a stretch of eight-straight batters retired by Savas.
Voelker opened the Illinois State seventh inning with a walk. On DeJong's attempted sacrifice bunt, Twenge fired wide of first base. The error advanced Voelker to third and DeJong to second. Twenge then retired the next two batters and, after a mound visit, remained in the ballgame to face Dwyer. After battling to a 2-2 count, Dwyer ripped a single into left field to score Voelker and DeJong and chase Twenge from the game.
North Dakota added an unearned run off an error in the eighth inning, but the Redbirds got the run back in the top of the ninth inning. Voelker doubled to left field to open the frame and scored on DeJong's RBI-single to center field.
Illinois State will continue the weekend road trip with two games Saturday. Game one versus North Dakota is slated for a 2:30 p.m. start. The Redbirds will then play Central Arkansas beginning at 5:30. Both games will be a full nine innings.
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics, tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
