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 Jacob Hendren earned his staff-leading sixth win of the season and
the bottom four hitters in Illinois State’s lineup provided eight
hits and six RBIs in the contest. Sean Beesley, Joe Kelch, Jean
Ramirez and Dennis Colon tallied two hits apiece for the Redbirds,
and both Kelch and Colon homered in the winning effort.
The Redbirds (16-15, 3-5 MVC) will go for the series sweep Sunday at
1 p.m.
“A good offense has to have balance. You can’t just rely on your big
boys at the top of the order to produce runs,” said Illinois State
head coach Bo Durkac. “For our 6-7-8-9 guys in order to each have
two hits, that was pretty impressive.”
Wichita State (13-21, 5-3) took an early lead with a solo home run
from Gunnar Troutwine in the second inning, but the Redbirds tied it
in the fourth with a ground-rule double from Ryan Koziol that scored
Jared Hendren. Illinois State took the lead just moments later when
Kelch hit a two-out, two-run single to plate Mason Snyder and Koziol.
Troutwine hit his second home run of the day – a two-run shot to
left field – in the bottom of the inning. The Redbirds got those
runs back, however, with a two-run homer from Colon in the fifth.
Run-scoring singles from Beesley and Colon scored Snyder and Koziol
in the sixth inning, and Beesley later scored on a balk, to rebuild
the Redbirds’ lead. The Shockers cut the ISU lead back down to three
with a sacrifice fly from Mikel Mucha in the bottom half.
Snyder added a two-run home run in the seventh inning, following
Jared Hendren’s leadoff walk. Kelch added a solo homer to give the
Redbirds a six-run lead.
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The Shockers added a run in the bottom of the eighth with a
bases-loaded walk against Jack Czeszewski, but Redbird reliever Jake
Sale came on and recorded back-to-back strikeouts to get out of the
jam.
The hosts scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth, with
two-out, run-scoring singles from Sam Hilliard and Troutwine, but
Koziol came on to record the final out and earn his second save of
the season.
Jacob Hendren allowed four runs on seven hits over six innings of
work Saturday. He struck out seven. Czeszewski pitched 1.1 innings
of one-run ball, before Sale got the Redbirds out of the jam in the
eighth. Sale was charged with all three runs in the ninth before
Koziol closed out the game.
[Matt Wing, Illinois State
University]
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