SEATTLE, Wash. – For the third time in four days, Illinois State (8-5) was able to defeat Washington (7-8) as the Redbirds defeated the Huskies by a score of 5-4 late Monday night at Husky Ballpark. The win gave the Redbirds a 3-1 series victory over the Huskies, their first over a Pac-12 opponent in school history.
ISU starter Matt Walker (2-0) was stellar through five innings, allowing just two runs on two hits while striking out a career-high eight batters for the Redbirds. Rhett Rapshus then came on and pitched two scoreless innings while striking out four and Connor Peplow pitched the eighth, giving up a run on two hits. Friday night's starter, Brady Huffman, came in to pitch the ninth and closed out the victory for the Redbirds to pick up his first save of the season.
The Redbirds jumped out to an early lead once again, after a one-out double by Owen Miller got things started. After moving to third on a balk, Miller scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Collin Braithwaite for the first run of the game. A double by Nick Zouras was followed by the third double of the inning, this one off the bat of Joe Aeilts, to stake ISU to a 2-0 lead. Washington would get one of those runs back in the bottom half of the inning to make it 2-1 after one.
Illinois State would add two more runs in the top of the fourth, on a two-run double by John Rave that plated Derek Parola and Jordan Libman to make it 4-1 in favor of ISU. Washington got one of those runs back in the bottom of the fifth inning to cut the deficit in half at 4-2. The Redbirds would get that run back in the top of the eighth inning on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Jordan Libman to make it 5-2, before the Huskies added one of their own in the bottom of the eighth to make it 5-3. Washington added a run in the bottom of the ninth and threatened to tie the game, but Huffman closed the door and gave the Redbirds the victory in the series finale.
The spring break trip will continue Thursday, when the Redbirds travel to Hawaii to begin a four-game set. Game updates will be tweeted @RedbirdBaseball and fans can find all game links at GoRedbirds.com.
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
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