EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – Southern Illinois-Edwardsville scored three times in the bottom of the eighth inning, the last two of which were unearned, to pull out a 4-3 victory over South Dakota State in the finale of a three-game college baseball series Sunday afternoon at Simmons Complex.
In sweeping the series, SIUE improved to 5-4 overall. The Jackrabbits dropped to 5-5 on the season.
Trailing 3-1, the Cougars’ eighth-inning rally began with a solo home run by Connor Kiffer that came after SIU had a runner thrown out attempting to steal. The next batter, Brady Bunten, reached on an error and scored on a double to left field by Raul Elguezabal. Ole Arntson then drove in the go-ahead run with a single through the right side, plating pinch-runner Dylan Burris.
SDSU opened the scoring with a run in the fourth inning. Luke Ira hit a one-out ground-rule double, advanced to third on a base hit by Derek Hackman and scored on a sacrifice fly by Drew Beazley.
SIUE tied the game with a sacrifice fly of its own in the fifth inning, but the Jackrabbits regained the lead with a run in the seventh inning and added another in the eighth. Pinch-hitter Garrett Stout drove in pinch-runner Jamie Berg in the seventh-inning run with a double, while Hackman’s second hit of the game scored pinch-runner Reece Anderson for the eighth-inning tally.
The Jackrabbits held a 7-6 advantage in hits, with Hackman the lone player for either team with more than one hit.
SDSU starter Ryan Bourassa struck out eight over 4 1/3 innings, while Eli Sundquist followed with four strikeouts in 2 2/3 scoreless frames. Bret Barnett took the loss.
UP NEXT
The Jackrabbits move on to Kansas State for a two-game midweek series Tuesday and Wednesday. First pitch each night is set for 6 p.m. at Tointon Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas.
Saturday
• SIUE 6, SDSU 1
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - SIU-Edwardsville starting pitcher Jake Bockenstedt struck out 13 South Dakota State batters over seven no-hit innings to lead the Cougars.
SIUE struck for a pair of runs in the bottom of the first against Jackrabbit starter Cody Carlson. Brady Bunten doubled in the first run and later scored on a base hit by Raul Elguezabal.
The Cougars pushed their lead to 6-0 with runs in each of the middle innings, including a solo home run by Richie Well in the fourth and a two-run shot by Brett Johnson in the sixth. Johnson was the lone player with more than one hit in the game, going 2-for-4 with a double, to lead the Cougars’ 10-hit attack.
Bockenstedt exited after striking out at least one batter in each of the seven innings he pitched, including fanning the side in both the third and fifth innings.
Noah Matheny added a no-hit frame in the eighth, but Jackrabbit freshman second baseman Garrett Stout broke up the combined no-hit bid with a solo home run to lead off the top of the ninth inning. It would be SDSU’s only hit of the game.
Friday
• SIUE 11, SDSU 3
Southern Illinois-Edwardsville scored three times in each of the first two innings and went on to defeat SDSU.
Brady Bunten opened the scoring for the Cougars in the first inning with a two-run triple off Jackrabbit starter Adam Mazur and later scored on a base hit by Raul Elguezabal. In SIUE’s three-run second inning, two of the runs scored were unearned.
The Jackrabbits got on the board with unearned runs in the fourth and sixth innings to pull to within 7-2, and had several opportunities to further cut into the deficit, but left the bases loaded three times and stranded a total of 16 runners in the game.
SIUE put together its third three-run inning of the game in the home half of the seventh to further put the game out of reach.
SDSU scored the final run of the game in the eighth as pinch-hitter Owen Bishop delivered a run-scoring single that drove in Reece Anderson.
The Cougars held a 12-9 advantage in hits, with Brett Johnson, Elguezabal and Josh Ohl each tallying three hits.
Landon Badger was 2-for-3 to lead SDSU at the plate.
SIU starter David Llorens struck out seven over 5 1/3 innings to earn the victory.
