WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - Illinois State (7-3, 0-0 Missouri Valley Conference) scored a season-high 13 runs on a season-best 17 hits to defeat LIU Brooklyn (3-6, 0-0 Northeast Conference), 13-4, Friday afternoon in the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational at Chain of Lakes Park. The victory improved Illinois State to 4-1 this season in neutral-site games.
Mike Hollenbeck, Joe Kelch and Jack Czeszewski each tallied three hits to power the Redbird offense. Czeszewski launched his second home run this season and Kelch added the first of his Illinois State career. Czeszewski and Dennis Colon each had four RBI and Sean Beesley secured three of Illinois State's five stolen bases. The Redbirds powered nine extra-base hits in the win.
Dan Savas (4-0) won his 14th consecutive-decision dating back to last spring and allowed two earned runs on five hits in six innings of work. Savas added four strikeout and two walks. In relief, Joe Claver fired two strikeouts and Matt Lambert worked a scoreless ninth inning with a pair of strikeouts. Brian Drapeau (1-2) was ticketed for six runs, five earned, in four innings of work for the loss.
Illinois State served as the visiting team for the neutral-site contest and Daniel Dwyer opened the game with a triple. It was the first of four triples on the day for Illinois State. Colon drove home Dwyer on a sacrifice-fly to give ISU an early 1-0 lead. After Hollenbeck and Paul DeJong reached, Czeszewski launched a towering home run over the fence in right field to give the Redbirds a four-run advantage. The home run was Czeszewski's second this spring.
Beesley opened the second inning with a walk, stole second base, advanced to third base on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-0 Illinois State after two innings. The Redbirds added a run in the fourth inning after Beesley reached on an error, stole second and third bases and then scored on an error from LIU catcher Melvin Rios.
LIU scored one run off Savas in the fourth inning via a sacrifice-fly.
The Redbirds rallied for five runs off Blackbirds reliever Skye Freeman in the fifth inning. Illinois State batted around in the five-run frame, scoring on a RBI-single from Czeszewski, a two-run home run from Kelch and a two-run double from Colon.
LIU scored its second run of the game on a solo home run versus Savas in the sixth inning. Illinois State added one run in the eighth inning after DeJong tripled and scored on a wild pitch and one more run in the ninth inning after Colon tripled and scored on a wild pitch. LIU tallied two runs in the eighth inning off Cam Verbeke.
The Redbirds and Blackbirds play again on Saturday at Chain of Lakes Park. First pitch is slated for 3:30 CST.
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics, tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
