By ISU Sports Information
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year kept the Redbirds off the scoreboard for eight innings and the Valley Player of the Year staked the league’s regular-season champs to an early lead as top-seeded Dallas Baptist earned a 9-5 win over No. 8 seed Illinois State Wednesday at the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at Bob Warn Field.
Dallas Baptist starter Colin Poche pitched eight shutout innings and MVC Player of the Year Darick Hall helped Dallas Baptist (38-17) to an early lead with a two-run home run in the top of the first inning as the top-seeded team advanced to a matchup with Southern Illinois (31-23-1) Thursday.
Illinois State (17-36) rallied late with five runs in the top of the ninth, chasing Dallas Baptist reliever Eric White, but Sean Stutzman came in and needed only one pitch to end the rally.
The Redbirds will return to Bob Warn Field to play No. 5 seed Evansville (27-26) in an elimination game Thursday morning at 8 a.m. CT.
“It’s frustrating, but ultimately, you just have to tip your caps to them,” said Illinois State head coach Bo Durkac. “They’ve beat us nine of the 10 games we’ve played against them since they joined the league in 2014. They’re just better than we are. They’re the No. 1 seed going into the tournament and we’re the No. 8 seed, for good reason, and it probably played out like it should have.”
Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year Darick Hall gave Dallas Baptist an early lead with a two-run, opposite-field home run in the bottom of the first inning.
The Patriots added on with two more runs in the third, thanks to a pair of back-to-back, two-out, RBI singles from Jameson Hannah and Trooper Reynolds, making it a 4-0 lead. Dallas Baptist then posted single tallies in the fifth and sixth innings, respectively, with run-scoring singles from Reynolds and Daniel Sweet. The Patriots led 6-0 after six innings.
A three-run home run from Camden Duzenack in the bottom of the seventh increased the Dallas Baptist lead to 9-0.
The Redbirds finally got on the scoreboard in the top of the ninth when Joe Kelch singled and Blake Molitor doubled to start the inning. Kelch scored on a Jean Ramirez groundout and Molitor made it home on Ryan Hutchinson’s infield single. Hutchinson later scored when Jared Hendren reached on an error that kept the inning alive, and Daniel Dwyer followed with a two-run double, but the game ended one pitch after a Dallas Baptist pitching change, when Kelch lined out to third base.
Miller, Molitor and Rodemoyer registered two hits each for Illinois State. Starting pitcher Steve Heilenbach was saddled with the pitching loss after allowing five runs over the first five innings. Rhett Rapshus, Jack Czeszewski and Mitch Vogrin all appeared in relief and allowed at least one run. Vogrin was most effective, settling in after allowing Duzenack’s home run to finish out the game.
