NORMAL, Ill. – In its first Missouri Valley Conference regular season game in 685 days, the Illinois State baseball team cruised past Southern Illinois, 11-3, on Friday night at Itchy Jones Stadium.
Fifth-year senior Colton Johnson threw five scoreless innings, giving up five hits and two walks to get the win for Illinois State (9-14 overall, 1-0 MVC). Johnson struck out four batters en route to surpassing 200 career strikeouts, becoming the ninth Redbird to reach the milestone.
Fourth-year junior Tyson Hays led the offensive attack, going 3-for-5 with a home run, double, four RBI, run scored, and walk. Fourth-year junior Jack Butler was 2-for-4 with a double, four RBI, and run scored while classmate Kyle Soberano was 3-for-4 with two RBI and three runs scored.
Southern Illinois (19-4 overall, 3-2 MVC) recorded 12 singles, stranding 17 runners.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Hays blasted a 1st inning solo home run before a 3rd inning Jack Butler single plated Soberano.
Soberano recorded a two-RBI 6th inning single prior to Jack Butler's bases-loaded walk to push the ISU lead to 5-0.
A two-RBI single by Hays broke the game open.
Fourth-year junior Colin Wyman limited the damage and left the bases juiced twice before exiting the game after seven innings with ISU leading, 7-1.
Doubles in the 8th inning by Hays and Jack Butler gave ISU an 11-1 lead. SIU added a pair of late runs for an 11-3 final.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Fifth-year senior Jordan Libman extended his on-base streak to 12 games and has now scored a run in nine-straight games. Libman has a hit in 20 of 23 games in 2021.
- Second-year freshman Ryan Cermak extended his on-base streak to 17 games.
- The combined LOB total of 28 is tied for the most in a Redbird nine-inning game since 2000. The last time 28 was reached in a nine-game was 5/19/2016 at Missouri State.
- The game featured seven hit batters, the most in an ISU game since 10 batters were hit on 2/15/2019 at Belmont. The 'Birds plunked SIU's Philip Archer three times, making him the first player to get hit three times by ISU pitching since 4/14/2009 at Northern Illinois.
- Fourth-year junior Nick Gile's error was his first in 62 chances in 2021. He previously led the MVC in assists without an error at 43.
UP NEXT
Illinois State is scheduled to play a doubleheader (7 and 9, unless game one goes 9+ innings then game two will be 7) on Saturday and a game on Sunday at Southern Illinois. The games will be on ESPN3.
For the latest updates on Illinois State Baseball, stay tuned at GoRedbirds.com, follow the Redbirds on Twitter (@RedbirdBaseball) and Instagram (isuredbirdbaseball), and like the team on Facebook (Illinois State Baseball).
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