EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The 15
th-ranked University of Southern Indiana baseball team swept a doubleheader from Grand Valley State University, 6-2 and 5-0, Monday afternoon at the USI Baseball Field. The Screaming Eagles, who won all four of their games in the Dunn Hospitality Classic, move their record to 6-1 to start the year, while the Lakers go to 1-3.
Game 1:
The Eagles and the Lakers posted a tally in the first inning before USI exploded for five runs in the bottom of the third to take a 6-1 lead. The five-run frame was highlighted by a bases-loaded clearing sacrifice fly when a fly ball off the bat of senior designated hitter
Jayden Beshears (Evansville, Indiana) was dropped in right center.
Leading the way at the plate for USI was sophomore centerfielder
Bryce Krizan (Mt. Vernon, Indiana), who had a pair of hits and scored twice, and sophomore leftfielder
Aaron Euler (Evansville, Indiana), who also had two hits and an RBI.
On the mound, senior right-hander
Austin Gossman (Avon, Indiana) started and posted his second win of the year. Gossman (2-0) allowed two runs, one earned, on four hits and a walk, while striking out four in seven innings of work.
Junior left-hander
Paul Perez (Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela) recorded his second save of the season after getting the final out and getting the Eagles out of a bases loaded, two out jam in the ninth. Senior right-hander
Dalton Lewis (Parker, Colorado) followed Gossman to the mound and pitched a flawless eighth inning before giving way to junior right-hander
Jacob Bowles (Mt Washington, Indiana), who got the first two outs in the ninth prior to the Lakers loading the bases.
Game 2:
USI senior left-hander
Chase Partain (Evansville, Indiana) posted his first win of the year by throwing six-plus scoreless innings as the Eagles to completed the doubleheader sweep of GVSU, 3-0. Partain scattered eight hits and two walks while striking out one over his six-plus innings of work.
Junior left-hander
Paul Perez came in with a runner on in the seventh and finished on the mound for the Eagles. Perez struck out two of the three batter he faced to close out the nightcap victory.
USI built a 3-0 lead through five innings after scoring a tally in second, third, and fourth innings. The first Eagle run crossed the plate when junior catcher
Wyatt Daly (Newburgh, Indiana) knocked in the first run of the game with a second inning sacrifice fly, while USI made the score 2-0 by plating a run when senior second baseman
Jacob Fleming (Evansville Indiana) hit into a double play.
The third Eagle run crossed the plate when sophomore shortstop
Ethan Hunter (Terre Haute, Indiana) tripled in senior designated hitter
Jayden Beshears with two outs in the fourth.
USI sealed the victory by plating a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth. Fleming knocked in both of the tallies with a two-run single and finished the game with a team-high two hits and two RBIs.
Up Next for the Eagles:
The Eagles return to the road this weekend when they travel to Nashville, Tennessee to visit Trevecca Nazarene University and play a neutral site games versus the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. The series in Nashville starts Friday at 6 p.m. versus Trevecca Nazarene; continues Saturday at 11 a.m. versus UW-Parkside and 2:30 p.m. versus Trevecca Nazarene; and finishes Sunday at noon against UW-Parkside.
The next home game for USI is March 16-17 when it hosts Lewis University for a GLVC three-game series.
