Game 3 of State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Tournament

WICHITA, Kan. - No. 5-seed Evansville hit four home runs and scored seven runs in the final three innings to defeat No. 4-seed Southern Illinois, 11-5, Tuesday in the 2010 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at Eck Stadium.

The Salukis (28-28) had just two hits through the first five innings. Evansville (31-26) pulled out to a 5-2 lead, but saw Southern Illinois cut that down to one after the seventh. The Purple Aces countered with a run in the eighth and hit three home runs in the ninth inning to put the game away.

SIU was led by first team all-conference first baseman Chris Serritella. He was 3-for-5 with two doubles and one RBI. Sophomore catcher Brian Bajer drove in SIU's first two runs of the game with his bases loaded single in the sixth.

Saluki right-hander Nathan Forer (3-4) drew the loss. He went 6.1 innings and gave up five runs off nine hits. Evansville's Keegan Dennis (4-3) allowed two runs off of three hits in 5.1 innings. He walked six and struck out six to pick up the win.
UE's No. 2 and No. 3 hitters in the lineup hurt the Dawgs, as Greg Wallace and Cody Fick each had four RBIs. Fick hit two home runs Tuesday.

It was a scoreless game until the top of the fifth when Evansville struck by scoring four runs with two outs. Wallace ripped a two-run triple to the wall in right-center with two outs and Fick followed with a two-run homer.

After just two hits in the first five innings, two walks from Dennis and a single from SIU freshman Austin Montgomery loaded the bags up with just one out. Evansville brought Zack Taylor into the game and after he got the second out, Bajer singled up the middle on a 2-2 pitch to cut the UE lead in half.

Evansville came back in the seventh and also loaded the bases up with a walk and two bunt singles. A sacrifice fly from Wallace plated the fifth run of the game for the Aces and Forer was replaced by freshman Lee Weld.

Weld struck out Fick and Bajer threw out Alex Acheson attempting to steal third base for the unconventional double play that got the Salukis out of the jam without any further damage.

The play swung the momentum of the game a bit and Southern came out and cut the gap down to 5-4 in the bottom half of the seventh. Serritella drove in the first run on a double that plated Blake Pinnon from first and Serritella later scored on a sacrifice fly from Montgomery.

Evansville hung tough and answered with one run in the eighth and five in the ninth to put the game away.

UE plays the winner of the Wichita State-Missouri State game at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday night, while SIU plays the loser of the same game at 12:30 p.m., Wednesday.