EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Lewis University's Brad Littleton (Coal City, Ill./) turned in a dominant performance in Lewis' series opening 8-5 win at Southern Indiana on Friday evening. The Flyers improve to 15-10, 13-8 GLVC while the Screaming Eagles drop to 16-13, 12-9 GLVC.

The win also snapped Lewis' seven-game losing streak to Southern Indiana and was the first win over the Screaming Eagles since 2017.

"It was a great team win today," Lewis head baseball coach Tim McDonough said. "USI is a tough place to win and we battled for nine innings against a very good club."

Littleton was masterful in the contest as he held USI's bats in check limiting them to just one run on four hits with 13 strikeouts in 7.0 innings pitched to win his fourth straight start and improve to 5-3 on the season.

"Brad was locked in and had all of his pitches working well and was throwing them for strikes," McDonough said. "He's tough to beat when he's on like he was tonight."

The Screaming Eagles got on the board first with a run in the second inning on Bryce Krizan's RBI single to center scoring Wyatt Daly.

Lewis tied the game in the fourth. With one out, Julian Everett (Frankfort, Ill/Lincoln Way East) tripled to center and scored on Anthony Rios' (Lemont, Ill./St. Laurence) sacrifice fly to right.

The Flyers took the lead in the sixth inning scoring five runs on five hits. Everett gave Lewis the lead with an RBI single through the left side of the infield to score Michael O'Brien (Joliet, Ill./Joliet Catholic) to make it 2-1. Rios followed with a single through the left side of the infield to bring in Jackson Dvorak (New Lenox, Ill./Providence Catholic).

With the bases loaded, Max Warren (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville) found a hole on the left side of the infield to drive in Everett and Rios to make it 5-1. Joe Preusser (Orland Park, Ill./Brother Rice) capped the inning with an RBI single to center to drive in Kevin Barry (Bartlett, Ill./South Elgin).

"Offensively we were just good enough and had a great sixth inning," McDonough said. "Julian really got us going today and provided a spark."

Lewis tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the ninth as Dalton Crowder (Romeoville, Ill./Plainfield East) scored on a dropped fly ball by the right fielder and later in the inning Preusser scored on O'Brien's sacrifice fly to right.

"I loved those add on runs we got in the ninth," McDonough said. "You can never have too big of a lead against a good team and those proved to be huge for us."

Southern Indiana made things interesting in the bottom half of the ninth scoring four runs on three hits and an error and had the tying run on deck with two out in the inning. Nick Huisman (Westmont, Ill/Timothy Christian) slammed the door shut striking out Manny Lopez to end the game and pick up his first save of the season.

The Flyers had eight hits in the contest with Everett leading the way with three while Preusser, O'Brien, Rios, Warren and Crowder had a hit apiece.

The two teams continue their four-game series on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at noon.