Redbird Pitchers Shut Down SIU in 4-1 Win

NORMAL, Ill. –  Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year Brett Headrick and reliever Colton Johnson held Southern Illinois to just three hits in a 4-1 Illinois State win to advance in the 2019 Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Tournament, Wednesday at Duffy Bass Field.

The No. 2 seed Redbirds (33-22) advance in the tournament to play at 7 p.m. Thursday against the winner of No. 3 Indiana State vs. No. 4 Evansville, played Wednesday night. The No. 8 seed Salukis (25-28), play at 11 a.m. Thursday against No. 6 seed Missouri State.

Illinois State got on the scoreboard in the second inning. Gunner Peterson lined a single to left. Nick Zouras was hit by a pitch to put runners at first and second. Peterson moved to third on Jack Butler’s fly to right field.

On the first pitch to Aiden Huggins, Zouras took off for second. SIU catcher Aiden McMahan threw to second and Zouras stopped. Before the Salukis could run down Zouras for the third out, Peterson crossed the plate to give Illinois State a 1-0 lead.

Derek Parola led off the Redbird sixth with the tournament’s first home run—his fifth of the season – a line drive over the left field wall to put Illinois State ahead 2-0. Jordan Libman followed with a single, advanced to second on a ground out and scored on a Joe Butler single. Butler came home on a Nick Zouras double in the right-center field gap and ISU led 4-0.

Brent Headrick was the winning pitcher (9-3), allowing one run, two hits and striking out four in 7 innings. In the first 5 1/3 innings, Headrick allowed just two baserunners—a first-inning walk to Will LaRue and a hit-batsman to Ian Walters in the fourth.  Johnson pitched the eighth and ninth innings for his third save of the season. With a 20 mph wind blowing out, ISU pitchers got 16 of 27 outs on ground balls.

SIU scored its run in the seventh. LaRue walked, went to second on a ground out, reached third on a wild pitch and scored on Alex Lyon’s sacrifice fly.