Freshman LHP Brent Stong gave Bradley 7.0 strong innings and senior LF Mike Tauchman was 2-for-4 with a double, run scored and RBI, but Evansville (23-33) staved off elimination in the 2013 Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Championship when Kevin Kaczmarski launched a 3-run, walk-off home run, lifting the Purple Aces to a 4-3 win in Wednesday’s second round at Duffy Bass Field. The loss ends the Braves season at 17-32 and Tauchman, the Joe Carter MVC Player of the Year, will have to wait and see if his school-record .425 season batting average stands up as the nation’s best through the remainder of the postseason. Stong limited Evansville to one run on four hits in his longest outing of the season, 7.0 innings, then gave way to fellow freshman Elliot Ashbeck to start the eighth. Ashbeck (0-2) worked a perfect eighth, but ran into trouble with one out in the ninth. After surrendering a single to No. 8 hitter, shortstop Shain Showers, Ashbeck walked No. 9 hitter Andy Lasher before Kaczmarski lined his game-winning blast over the right-field wall.
-Bob
Normal CornBelters left fielder Romulo Ruiz blasted a three-run homer off of Windy City Thunderbolts pitcher Rich Hawkins for a 7-6 victory in there Frontier League home-opener before 2,713 fans at the Corn Crib. The Belters (3-1) led the entire way until Windy City (1-4) scored three unearned runs in the sixth to grab a 6-4 lead. The top five hitters in Normal’s lineup contributed 11 of the team’s 12 hits. Mike Schwartz, Pat McKenna and Ruiz had three hits each. Mitch Mormann (1-0), who relieved starter Drew Provence in the fifth, earned the win. Casey Upperman pitched two innings of hitless relief for his second save. The two teams meet again Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. for the second game of the opening series.
-Bob
Senior third baseman Spencer Gaa homered and drove in three runs and Geremy Guerrero and Trent Johnson combined to allow six hits for Metamora in a 5-2 win over the host Limestone Wednesday night that earned both a title share in the Mid-Illini Conference. Gaa, headed to Bradley University, had a two-run double to highlight a four-run second inning off Rockets left-hander Dylan Weaver. Metamora (26-5, 13-1) last won the M-I title in baseball in 1996. Limestone (22-6, 13-1), also co-champion last season, was bidding to become the first team in the 31-year history of the M-I to go unbeaten in league play. Limestone in the second got an RBI single from Dominic Johnson and Adam Schmitt scored on Josh Wormer’s sacrifice fly to make the score 4-2. Redbirds freshman lefty Geremy Guerrero used the defensive support to face the minimum from the third through fifth innings and allowed five hits, struck out two and walked one. Sophomore Trent Johnson came on in the sixth. In the seventh he got Sean Green to ground into a force for the final out with two runners on.
-Bob
Limestone senior pitcher Zach Jewell was brilliant in a 2-0 victory over Metamora (25-5, 12-1)in a matchup of Mid-Illini Conference baseball unbeatens Monday evening. The Rockets (22-5, 13-0) right-hander allowed three hits, no walks and struck out six in the complete-game win. Trent Johnson, the Redbirds sophomore committed to the University of Arizona, got an inning-ending double play to escape a bases-loaded sitiation in the bottom of the fourth. Limestone loaded the bases again in the sixth, on Dylan Weaver’s single surrounded by two walks. Dominic Johnson, also a sophomore, who fanned in his first two at-bats, bounced a single through the left side that scored pinch-runner Ray Vogel and Weaver. In the seventh Jewell retired Trent Johnson and Brendan Nachtrieb on strikes after Alec Skender singled and reached second. Metamora will travel to play Limestone again in two days at 7 p.m.
-Bob
Bradley University took a 5-run lead into the ninth inning, but still could not put an end to its Missouri Valley Conference skid as visiting Southern Illinois (24-27, 6-12 MVC) used five extra base hits in its final at bat to rally for an 8-7 win Sunday afternoon at Dozer Park on senior day. The Braves (16-28, 1-17) dropped its 15th consecutive Valley game, despite holding a 7-2 lead with one out and nobody on base in the top of the ninth. Freshman right-hander Elliot Ashbeck retired his eighth consecutive Saluki hitter when he got Luke Mottashed to pop out to open the ninth, but five straight Salukis reached on three doubles, a home run and a walk. Senior right-hander Patrick Flanagan relieved with a runner at second base and the Braves still clinging to a 7-6 lead and he was within one pitch of closing out the win after he retired SIU slugger Austin Montgomery on a first-pitch foul out. After plunking Ryan Casillas with a pitch, Flanagan jumped ahead of Cody Daily, 0-2, but gave up a 2-run double to the Salukis third baseman for SIU’s fifth extra-base hit of the inning. Despite the deflating events of the top of the ninth, Bradley had a chance to rally against SIU closer Todd Eaton. Brady Wilkin started the home half of the ninth with a high-chopper to second and wound up at 2nd base when Wes Neece’s throw went into the first base camera bay. After Nolan Sponsler grounded out to second, moving Wilkin to third, SIU elected to pitch to the league’s top hitter, Mike Tauchman, who was 8-for-11 in the series. SIU appeared to catch a huge break when Tauchman skied a pop up on the infield, but shortstop Jake Welch could not make the catch after racing across the front of the mound to the first base side.
-Bob
