Baseball

MVC BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME 7 – #1 DBU 9, #4 Evansville 2

Sosa, Isaacson Lead DBU over Evansville With Back-to-Back Homers

Normal, IL – Andres Sosa and Augie Isaacson launched back-to-back home runs in the second inning to jump-start Dallas Baptist to a 9-2 win over Evansville in a Missouri Valley Conference Tournament game Thursday at Duffy Bass Field.

It was home run No. 5 of the season for Sosa and No. 4 for Isaacson. The Patriots added another run in the fourth as Herbert Iser hit his seventh homer of the season. Iser, who was 3-for-4 with a walk for the game, added a double and a single as the Patriots pounded out 13 hits.

The No. 1 seed Patriots (40-16) play Friday against the winner of No. 2 seed Illinois State vs. No. 3 seed Indiana State played later Thursday. The No. 4 seed Aces (24-29) end their season after going 0-2 in the Valley Tournament.  DBU has won 40 games for the sixth-straight season, joining Louisville as the only NCAA Division I programs riding the same streak. 

Evansville left 10 men on base, five in the first three innings. The Aces didn’t score until the fifth when Ben Komonosky led off with a walk and Troy Beilsmith followed with a double to left, Komonosky stopping at third. Sam Troyer hit a one-hop shot back to the mound and DBU starter MD Johnson threw out Komonosky trying to get back to third, leaving runners on first and second with one out.

But Johnson’s control deserted him at that point. A pair of wild pitches plated Beilsmith with the first UE run and sent Troyer to third. After a walk to Nate Reeder, Johnson departed in favor of Jarod Bayless, who fanned Tanner Craig but hit Craig Shepherd to load the bases. But Bayless got Eric Roberts to foul out to right fielder to end the inning.

The Patriots added five unearned runs in the seventh. With a runner on first and one out, a UE error on what could have been an inning-ending double play opened the door for a run-scoring single by Evan Sandmann and a two-run double by Luke Bandy, who stole third and scored on Herbert Iser’s infield single.  Iser scored on Sosa’s double to left and DBU led 9-1.

UE’s second run came on an Eric Roberts solo homer in the eighth, cutting the Patriot lead to 9-2.

Bayless (7-1) got the pitching win for DBU with 2 2/3 innings of one-hit, no-run relief. Justin Hayden (3-3) took the loss for UE, allowing four earned runs in three innings.