EVANSVILLE, Ind. - An comeback victory in extra innings highlighted Lewis baseball's Great Lakes Valley Conference doubleheader at Southern Indiana on Sunday (April 24) afternoon. The Flyers won game one 9-8 in eight innings after falling behind 6-3 of the contest originally scheduled for seven innings. Lewis fell in game two 6-1.
Game One - Lewis 9, Southern Indiana 8 (8 innings) (HTML Box | PDF Box)
Lewis scored a run in the seventh inning to force extras and a run in the eighth to defeat Southern Indiana 9-8. Lewis scored those runs with the benefit of only one hit. The patient Flyers walked three times and had a hit by pitch in the seventh to help tie the game. In the eighth, freshman
Brandon Post (Elk Grove Village, Ill./Elk Grove) opened the frame with a walk. Lewis would eventually load the bases with no outs before Post scored on a fielder's choice.
Post would be the winning run thanks to senior
Phil Warner (South Elgin, Ill./St. Charles North)'s work on the mound. He threw a scoreless seventh and eighth innings to get the win. He is now 1-2. USI's Alex Holder earned the loss. He falls to 3-5.
"Phil was great in his two innings of work," Lewis head coach
Tim McDonough said.
Lewis took an early lead with three runs in the first inning. Southern Indiana responded with six straight runs to take a 6-3 lead into the top of the sixth. When the Flyers came to bat in the sixth they hadn't had a hit since the third. Senior
Austin Mastela (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport) put a stop to that with a leadoff single. It was a 6-5 game with two outs when the Flyers found some two-out magic. Freshman
Zach Parker (Park Ridge, Ill./Maine South) doubled to knock in senior
Kurt Becker (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) and tie the game at six. Then sophomore
Sam Cybulski (Clarendon Hills, Ill./Lyons Township) singled in Parker.
The four-run fourth gave Lewis a 7-6 lead, only to see Southern Indiana use a two-out hit to take an 8-7 lead in the bottom of the sixth. But it wouldn't hold up as Lewis tied it in the seventh and won it in the eighth.
"Game one really showed what this team is made of," McDonough said. "We never quit and always believed we were going to win. It wasn't the sharpest pitched game from either team but we found a way to grind it out."
Sophomore
Ethan Bloom (Schaumburg, Ill./Hoffman Estates) finished the opener 3-of-3 with two runs scored and a walk. Senior
Chris Pikoulas (Frankfort, Ill./Carl Sandburg) knocked in three runs.
Game Two - Southern Indiana 6, Lewis 1 (HTML Box | PDF Box)
Southern Indiana bounced back in game two thanks to Screaming Eagles' starting pitcher Austin Krizan. He went all seven innings, allowing just one run to move his record to 4-0.
Game two was shortened to seven innings due to league rules. Once a game one seven inning contest goes extra innings, game two becomes a seven inning contest.
Lewis was out-hit only 8-7 in the contest, but Southern Indiana made their hits count. The Screaming Eagles scored five runs in the first inning and then one in the sixth.
Junior
Jake Herron (Joliet, Ill./Joliet West) started for Lewis. He is now 4-4 after the loss. Lewis' bullpen pitched the final 5.1 innings, allowing just one run to give Lewis a chance to rally.
"Jake had been struggling with his command lately," McDonough said. "I thought his arm looked good and had good stuff but he just couldn't find the strike zone consistently."
Lewis' only run of game two came on an RBI single by senior
Joe Sparacio (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield Central) in the sixth.
Lewis is now 22-17 (11-9 GLVC). Southern Indiana is 25-16 (13-7 GLVC). The Flyers return to action on Thursday (April 28) in a non-conference home game against St. Francis (IL). First pitch at Brennan Field is set for 7 p.m.
