Box Score

OMAHA, Neb. - The Indiana State Sycamores defeated the Wichita State Shockers, 7-6 on Thursday at the 2011 State Farm MVC Championship at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb.  The Sycamores win forces a deciding game against the Shockers Friday afternoon at 12:30 p.m.  The winner will face either Creighton or Missouri State in the championship game Saturday night at 7 p.m.  Friday will be the third time WSU and ISU have faced each other in the 2011 tournament with each team earning one victory.

Trailing 7-3 going into the bottom of the ninth, Wichita State mounted a furious comeback with three runs off of Indiana State's closer Blake Drake but fell just short in their comeback.  

Tyler Grimes led off the ninth with a single to centerfield and Kevin Hall followed with a single to right field.  Chris O'Brien followed with a walk to load the bases for Johnny Coy.  Grimes would score on a wild pitch from Drake and Hall and O'Brien each advanced a base.  Coy struck out and Preston Springer followed Coy with an RBI groundout to plate Hall.  A single by Dayne Parker advanced O'Brien to third base and brought Don Lambert to the plate.  The junior outfielder singled on the first pitch to score O'Brien and cut the Sycamores lead to 7-6. 

Freshman outfielder Zach Stucky came to the plate next for the Shockers.  Stucky had entered the game in eighth inning as a pinch hitter for Micah Green.  Stucky hit a grounder to Sycamores third baseman Koby Kraemer and Kramer beat pinch runner Tyler Coughenour in a close play to the third base bag for the final out of the game.

Indiana State scored first on Thursday from a two-out Walker Davidson throwing error in the second inning.  Jeremy Lucas, who led off the inning with a single scored off Davidson's error to put the Sycamores up 1-0.  Indiana State's second baseman Jeff Miera came to bat next but had to leave the game after he fouled a 0-2 pitch off his face and suffered a broken nose.  Jordan Pearson came in as a pinch hitter for Miera and lined the first pitch from Smith up the middle to give the Sycamores a 3-0 lead.

Coy cut the Sycamores lead to 3-2 in the fourth inning with a two-run blast to left field.  O'Brien drew a walk to lead off the inning and Coy followed with his seventh home run of the season.  Two batters later Lambert tied the game at 3-3 with an RBI single to right field to score Dayne Parker, who reached second base on a throwing error by Kraemer.

In the sixth inning Indiana State scored three runs to take the lead 6-3.  Lucas once again started things for the Sycamores with a single and Jon Hedges walked to bring up Lucas Hileman.  Hileman hit a grounder to Parker but Parker's throw to Coy was low and it went by him and allowed Lucas to score and Hileman to advance to second.  Ryan Walterhouse bunted down the first base line to score Hedges and the Sycamores got their last run with a sacrifice fly by Tyler Wampler.

Indiana State added one more run in the eighth inning with an RBI single by Walterhouse.

O'Brien finished 1-for-2 with two runs scored and extended his career-best hitting streak to 27 games.  Coy was 1-for-5 at the plate with a home run and two RBI.  Parker and Lambert each finished 3-for-5 with Lambert collecting two RBI.

-WICHITA STATE-