EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Southern Illinois baseball earned its first win over a top-seed in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament since 2014 after defeating No. 20 Indiana State, 10-9, in 11 innings at German American Bank Field in Evansville.
Both teams battled a near two-hour lightning delay in the middle of the second inning which would signal the end of the day for SIU’s Al Holguin and ISU’s Jared Spencer on the mound.
It was the relief pitchers who played a major role for the Salukis in the win as Easton Dermody and Anthony Pron put together what was one of their best outings of the season when the lights were the brightest.
Dermody went 3.2 innings out of the bullpen and steadied the ship for the Saluki arms after Indiana State put up two runs in the first 2.1 innings. The right-hander struck out four Sycamores and allowed just two base hits over his outing. Pron went a career-long four innings in his appearance and allowed just two earned runs to earn the win and improve to 3-2 on the year.
Tied after two innings at two runs each, Indiana State would take its first lead of the night on an RBI single up the middle off the bat of Grant Magill.
Dermody would be brought in from the bullpen in the bottom of the third with the bases loaded and one out, and the reliever would get the Dawgs out of the inning after inducing a 4-6-3 double play to end the Sycamore threat.
The Salukis would run Indiana State’s Cam Edmondson out of the game in the fifth inning after spraying four hits and scoring two runs to take a lead. Trey Cutchen opened the frame with a ground-rule double down the line in right before coming around to score on Mathieu Vallee’s second RBI of the day. After moving to third base thanks to a single from Steven Loden it was Jake Allgeyer who gave the Salukis a 4-3 lead with a batted ball right back up the middle.
Indiana State looked for a big sixth inning after loading the bases with no outs on a pair of walks and a single, but Dermody and the Salukis had other plans. Dermody would get a strikeout of Luis Hernandez before a sacrifice fly tied the game at four. Dermody would limit the damage to just one run as he handled a ground ball back to the mound to send the Sycamores back to the dugout.
A throwing error on a groundball to the left side would come back to bite the Salukis in the bottom of the eighth inning, moving two runners into scoring position before intentionally loading the bases to set up a double play.
Pron would get a fly ball to shallow left and a good throw home from Nathan Bandy was just late as Mike Sears collected the sacrifice fly to give the Sycamores a 5-4 lead heading to the ninth.
Steven Loden would provide the theatrics for Southern Illinois in the top of the ninth as he sent the first pitch he saw over the wall in left field for his team-leading 13th home run of the season.
Sycamore closer Simon Gregerson would come in from the bullpen for Indiana State and would go on to retire three of the four Salukis he faced on strikeouts to send the top-seeded Sycamores to the bottom of the ninth.
Joe Kido led off the ninth inning with a double off the wall in the gap in right for the Trees before Josue Urdaneta drew a walk. Pron and the Dawgs would get out of the inning unscathed though after a fly ball, a foul out and a groundball to first that went from foul territory back into play to end the threat.
Vallee led off the 11th with a single down the line in left and moved to second on a wild pitch. Allgeyer collected his game-high third RBI of the day in the top of the 11th when he brought in the go-ahead run from second with a single up the middle.
Southern would go on to load the bases with back-to-back walks to Hesston Gray and Bennett Eltoft before Jordan Bach brought in another run after drawing the bases-loaded walk.
Nathan Bandy added three insurance runs as he cleared the bases with a three-run triple to the gap in left to make it a 10-5 Saluki lead heading to the bottom of the 11th inning.
Indiana State put two runners on before Southern went to the bullpen for Cole Koonce. After a groundout, the Sycamores would get a two-RBI single from Randall Diaz before a hit-by-pitch put two runners on.
Parker Stinson would double off the wall in left to make it a one-run game at 10-9 before SIU went to the bullpen for Ben Riffe to record the final out of the game and secure SIU’s first win over the No. 1 seed in the MVC Tournament for the first time in a decade.
Vallee and Loden led the Dawgs with three hits each. Allgeyer went 2-for-5 with three RBIs while Bandy came up with one of the biggest hits of the game with the three-run triple in the 11th.
Gregerson fell to 1-1 on the season after giving up five runs on three hits. Jacob Pruitt struck out four in 3.1 innings before being lifted in the ninth.
