By Tim Van Duyne/Illinois State University Athletics Media Relations
NEW ORLEANS, La. – The Illinois State baseball team was shut out, 13-0, by Tulane behind seven strong innings from the Green Wave’s Ross Massey Friday evening at Turchin Stadium.
The loss for Illinois State (7-14) runs its losing streak to six games, the longest losing streak since the 2014 season.
Ross (3-1) sat down the first 14 Illinois State hitters he saw before Blake Molitor broke up the no-hitter with a single up the middle in the fifth inning. Ross worked seven innings and limited the Redbirds to just five hits and no runs on his way to a win.
Jacob Hendren (1-5) found himself in some trouble in the first inning when he allowed a one-out double followed by a walk. After a successful double steal, Tulane’s Hunter Hope drove in the first run of the game on a ground out to third. Despite the early trouble, Hendren got out of the first inning with just the one run allowed.
Tulane started the fourth inning with back-to-back singles and bunted the runners over to second and third base. With two outs, the nine hitter Richard Carthon doubled in both runners to increase Tulane’s lead to 3-0.
To start the fifth inning, Hendren allowed a bunt base hit and a single. Hendren got one more out before his day would come to an end. Marcus McKinney came out of the bullpen to try and work out of the jam. McKinney walked the first batter he faced, forcing the bases loaded. The junior got a ground out, but fell behind the next hitter 3-0 and eventually walked in a run to push the Green Wave lead to 4-0.
Once Molitor singled to center in the fifth the Redbirds were able to scatter some hits. Illinois State started the sixth, seventh and eighth innings with a leadoff baserunner, but failed to score.
Tulane put the game to rest in the bottom of the eighth inning when they put an eight spot on the scoreboard. The big hit in the inning was Lex Kaplan’s three-run home run to right field, which gave Tulane a 13-0 lead.
Ryan Hutchinson doubled to lead off the ninth inning, giving him two hits on the night. Tulane’s Patrick Duester retired the next three Redbird hitters to end the game and give the Green Wave a 13-0 win.
Hendren went 4.1 innings while allowing four earned runs on eight hits. Lucas Hall pitched in the eighth inning and earned all eight runs on six hits.
The Redbirds will play two games Saturday with the first game of the double-header starting at 1 p.m. CT. The second game will begin roughly 45 minutes after the final of game one.
