LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Illinois State baseball team dropped a 12-inning thrilling affair at Little Rock (3-2) with a 5-4 final from Gary Hogan Field on Friday.
Illinois State (1-3) was led by three hits from junior JT Sokolove.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Redshirt junior Judah Morris got the first Redbird run on the board off an opposite field homerun in the 2nd-inning. Then, in the 3rd inning, a pair of RBIs from senior Luke Cheng and sophomore Daniel Pacella would increase the Redbird lead to 3-0.
The Trojans responded in the 4th inning with a pair of runs to trim the lead to one before the two sides would go scoreless over the next two innings.
An RBI double from Pacella in the 7th inning scored fellow sophomore Shai Robinson for a 4-2 Redbird lead. However, once more, the Trojans responded with a run in both the 7th and 8th inning to knot the game up heading into the 9th.
As the game headed to extras, it was Little Rock plating the winning run in the bottom of the 12th with a bases-loaded walk to secure the win.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Senior Cameron Mabee made his second start of 2024, finishing with a career-high 7 strikeouts over 6 innings pitched, allowing two runs
- Friday marks the first extra-inning game for the Redbirds since last April at Indiana State (10 innings);
- Friday's 12 innings are the most innings played by ILS since a 16-inning contest at Murray State in March 2022
- Daniel Pacella recorded his team-leading 9th and 10th RBI
UP NEXT
Illinois State and Little Rock will play game two of the weekend on Saturday, beginning at 2 p.m. CT from Gary Hogan Field. The game will be on ESPN+.
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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