MACOMB, Ill. -Â Â Illinois State (29-15) surrendered 13 runs on a season-high 18 hits in a 13-12 loss at Western Illinois (17-23) Saturday afternoon. Illinois State powered 12 runs on 16 hits but fell short as WIU rallied for three runs over the game's final two innings to walk-off winners.
Brock Stewart (2-2) was saddled with the loss. He allowed three runs, only one of which was earned, in 1.1 innings of work. David Suarez allowed an unearned run in two innings of work and Redbird starter Dylan Craig surrendered nine runs, five of which were earned, in his shortest start of the season for the no-decision. Tyler Owings (3-1) secured the win in relief for the Leathernecks. He worked 1.2 scoreless innings with one strikeout.
Mike Hollenbeck had a career-day at the plate, tallying five hits and driving home six runs. He added one home run and a pair of run-scoring singles at the dish. Paul DeJong knocked three hits and scored four runs and both Joe Kelch and Dennis Colon had two-hit, two-RBI efforts.
Illinois State scored one run in the first inning on an error, but WIU took advantage of a pair of Redbird errors in the bottom half of the inning to lead 4-1 after one. Jake Moore's three-run home run capped the scoring in the first inning.
WIU extended its lead to 6-1 with a pair of runs in the second inning.
ISU then scored the next seven runs of the game to reclaim the lead. In the third inning, Hollenbeck slapped a two-run single and Stewart launched his second home run of the year, a two-run shot that made it 6-5 WIU. Illinois State tied the game in the fourth inning on a RBI-single from Daniel Dwyer and went on top on Hollenbeck's solo home run to open the fifth inning. Mason Snyder added a sacrifice-fly to make it, 8-6, Illinois State.
Consecutive RBI-tallies from Chris Tschida, Brent Tuner and Adam McGinnis in the bottom of the fifth inning put WIU back on top, 9-8, however Illinois State would the game one inning later on Hollenbeck's RBI-single to center field.
WIU took advantage of Illinois State's third error to reclaim the lead in the seventh inning. In the eighth, Snyder smacked a run-scoring single and Colon added a two-out, two-run drive to give Illinois State a 12-10 advantage. The Leathernecks tied the game in the eighth inning on a two-run, two-out double from Tschida and won it in the ninth inning on Neil DeCook's bases-loaded walk-off single.
The series concludes Sunday afternoon with a noon start from Boyer Stadium.
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