MARTIN, Tenn. – The Illinois State baseball team scored three times in the 5th inning to lead but ultimately fell, 6-5, to UT Martin in 11 innings on Saturday at the Skyhawk Baseball Field.
Illinois State (7-9 overall) got a strong relief outing from junior Joe Husak, who threw 1.2 innings with three strikeouts, three hits, and no runs allowed.
UT Martin improves to 6-13 overall, breaking an eight-game losing streak.
SCORING BREAKDOWN
Illinois State scored the game's first run in the top of the 2nd off a homerun by Noah Rabin, his sixth of 2024.
UT Martin would tie the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the 3rd with a solo homerun.
The Skyhawks grabbed the lead with a sac fly in the bottom of the 4th inning.
The Redbirds responded with a three-run 5th with an RBI single by Luke Lawrence, an RBI single from Shaydon Kubo, and a sac fly off the bat of Daniel Pacella to make it a 4-2 game for ILS.
UT Martin rallied back to knot the score again at 4-4 in the 8th with an RBI single.
As the game went to extras, it was JT Sokolove hitting a bloop double to centerfield to give ILS a 5-4 lead in the top of the 10th inning.
The Skyhawks would once more respond in the bottom of the 10th with an RBI double to tie the score up at 5-5.
UT Martin would walk it off in the bottom of the 11th with a single to right field as the Skyhawks scored four of the game's last last five runs to secure the win.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Lawrence recorded a team-leading fifth game with three hits
- Sokolove tallied his ninth stolen base of the season in the 8th
- First time ILS has lost on a walk-off hit since April 2023 at Indiana State
UP NEXT
Game 3 of the series between Illinois State and UT Martin is set for a 1 p.m. start Sunday at Skyhawk Baseball Field with the action streaming live 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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