DALLAS – The Illinois State baseball team dropped its Missouri Valley Conference opener to No. 15 Dallas Baptist Friday night at Joan & Andy Horner Ballpark. Dallas Baptist won, 6-2.
Illinois State (11-11, 0-1 MVC) scored two runs in the top of the first inning but was held scoreless the rest of the way. The Patriots tied the game in the fourth, took the lead in the fifth and added three insurance runs in the eighth to win the game.
"I told the guys after the game that I have no complaints with how we played. We had a couple errant pickoff throws that led to a couple runs, but we played well," said Illinois State head coach Bo Durkac. "We got them early, but they kept chipping away and came away with a victory."
Mason Snyder singled through the left side of the infield to plate Daniel Dwyer and give the Redbirds their first run of the game. Sean Beesley then scored Paul DeJong with an RBI fielder's choice to give the Redbirds a 2-0 lead heading to the bottom of the first.
Dallas Baptist (20-3, 3-1) cut the Redbird lead in half with an RBI groundout from Nash Knight in the second. The Patriots tied it in the fourth with a run-scoring single to left-center field from Nash, and took the lead with an unearned run in the fifth.
The hosts added insurance with three runs in the eighth, with key hits coming from Nash and Chane Lynch.
Will Headean suffered the pitching loss for Illinois State. Headean was charged with all six runs, although only four were counted as earned runs. He allowed eight hits and three walks, while striking out three, over 7.1 innings of work. Steve Heilenbach got two quick outs to get the Redbirds out of the eighth inning.
Snyder led the Redbird offense with a pair of singles, a walk and an RBI. DeJong doubled, walked and scored a run. Dwyer added a single, walk and scored a run.
Joseph Shaw was solid over the first six innings for Dallas Baptist, allowing just the two first-inning runs. Chance Adams pitched three scoreless innings of relief to earn the save.
The three-series continues Saturday. First pitch of Saturday's game is set for 2 p.m.
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