By ISU Sports Information
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Boomer Synek hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning, lifting the Evansville Purple Aces to a 4-3 win and eliminating Illinois State from the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Thursday at Bob Warn Field.
Illinois State forced extra innings by tying the game in the eighth inning, but missed a prime opportunity to go ahead in the top of the 10th as a pair of runners advanced into scoring position with no outs but failed to score. Synek then led off the bottom of the inning with an opposite-field blast that both cleared the outfield fence and stayed inside the foul pole, each by a matter of feet.
“I don’t know if it’s the fault of our hitters or a credit to their pitchers – you could debate that to the end of time – but the bottom line is (Evansville reliever Ryan) Brady made pitches when he had to and kept us from scoring,” Illinois State head coach Bo Durkac said of his team’s opportunity in the top of the 10th. “Then Synek killed us with a walk-off home run.”
Illinois State finished its season at 17-37. Evansville (28-26) advanced to play either Dallas Baptist or Southern Illinois Friday at 8 a.m. CT.
“The year didn’t go the way we wanted it to, wins and losses, but we did a lot of good things: community service and another grade-point average record,” Durkac said. “I want to run a first-class program and the wins and losses will take care of themselves, but you either do things right all the time or you never do them right, and I want to thank our seniors for doing things right.”
Senior Sean Beesley got the Redbirds on the board first with a solo home run to left-center field. Moments later, Owen Miller made it a 2-0 lead when his single scored Jared Hendren, who had followed Beesley’s homer with a triple.
Evansville grabbed the lead in the bottom of the fourth with three runs in the inning. Trey Hair started things with an RBI single that scored Josh Jyawook, who led off the inning with a double. Korbin Williams reached on a fielder’s choice and moved to third on Travis Tokarek’s single before scoring on Eric McKibban’s double to left. Shain Showers then plated the go-ahead run with a run-scoring groundout.
The game was delayed for two hours and 36 minutes in the top of the fifth inning with two outs. Relief pitchers Jacob Hendren and Brent Jurceka settled in after the delay, until Illinois State tied the game with a run in the top of the eighth. Blake Molitor tripled with one out and scored on Brian Rodemoyer’s grounder to shortstop.
Neither team scored in the ninth as Redbird reliever Jack Landwehr sent the game into extra innings when he recorded the final out of the ninth on his first pitch.
The Redbirds failed to cash in on an opportunity in the top of the 10th inning, as a pair of runners advanced into scoring position with no outs. Daniel Dwyer reached on an error to start the inning and Miller singled to left field to start the inning. Both advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch, but three-straight ground balls ended the inning without a run. Joe Kelch hit a hard grounder to a drawn-in shortstop and both Molitor and Ryan Hutchinson grounded out to the pitcher to end the inning.
Synek, the first batter for Evansville in the bottom half of the inning, then tucked a 2-1 pitch just inside the left-field foul pole to end the game.
Redbird starter David Meade allowed three runs on five hits and a walk over the first four innings. He struck out two. Jacob Hendren took over after the rain delay, tossing 4.2 shutout innings, allowing just one hit and one walk, with two strikeouts.
Miller led the Redbirds with three hits. Rodemoyer collected two hits, one of which was a double.
