Box Score Game 1: USI 3, BU 2
Box Score Game 2: BU 5, USI 2

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Southern Indiana baseball team settled for a split in round one with Bellarmine University Tuesday afternoon at the USI Baseball Field. The Screaming Eagles (14-22, 11-21 GLVC) took the opener, 3-2, while the Knights (20-15, 15-12 GLVC) won the nightcap, 5-2.

USI and Bellarmine will conclude the four-game season series next week, April 19, in Louisville, Kentucky.

In the opener, the defense of USI junior rightfielder Hunter Slade (Newburgh, Indiana) was the difference in the game. Slade threw out Bellarmine's Jeff Dillman at the plate to preserve the 3-2 Eagle victory and started a double play in the first inning on a routine fly ball to right.

USI junior right-hander Aaron Clark (Madisonville, Kentucky) picked up the victory for the Eagles in his first start of the spring. Clark (2-3) went 6 1/3 innings, allowing eight hits and two runs.

Eagles' junior left-hander Jerry Reecer (Mooresville, Indiana) and sophomore right-hander Jeremy Kerht (Plainfield, Indiana), who recorded his first save of the year, came in to finish the game for Clark in the seventh.

Offensively, USI was led by freshman leftfielder Ryan Gilliland (Aledo, Illinois) led the Eagles with a pair of hits, a run scored, and a RBI. Sophomore second baseman Darin Mastroianni (Huntersville, North Carolina) and freshman designated hitter Kirby Dunagan (Greensburg, Indiana) also had a pair of hits in the victory.

In the nightcap, Bellarmine exploded for four runs in the eighth inning to win 5-2. USI was led by Mastrioanni, who singled, and scored in the first inning and tripled and scored in the fifth to give USI the lead in each inning.

The Eagles conclude the four-game homestand Saturday when Southern Illinois University Edwardsville comes to the USI Baseball Field for a doubleheader. SIUE features the top NCAA Division II pitching staff that started the week with a 1.86 ERA.