Evansville, Ind. – The UW-Parkside baseball team defeated Illinois Springfield 10-5 on Sunday night to salvage a split of its two games at the Dunn Hospitality Invitational.
Kirk Haviland drove in four runs as the Rangers posted their biggest offensive output of the season. They dropped the first game of the day to Indiana Southeast, 9-7.
The Rangers are now 6-6 overall heading into Great Lakes Valley Conference play next weekend. The team will travel to Missouri to take on William Jewell in the league opener.
Below are recaps of Sunday's games in Evansville.
Game One (
Box Score)
Indiana Southeast found success early against
Josh Geiger scoring a run in the first and adding four more in the third to get into the Ranger bullpen.
Parkside chipped away at the deficit scoring two runs in the third. Haviland and
Ben Korman started the rally with back-to-back singles. After
John Brennan bunted them over,
Eric Abel knocked in the first run with a ground out to the right side. Korman scored on the next at-bat when
Corey Stonelake's ball was mishandled at third.
The Grenadiers got both those runs back in the fourth to establish a 7-2 lead. Parkside answered back though scoring three more runs to get within two.
Mike Anderson singled and
Tyler Gieseking walked to get the first to runners on base. After a double steal, Korman delivered a big swing a two-run double to make it 7-4. With two away, Stonelake came through with an RBI-single to bring in Korman.
ISU kept swinging, adding another run in the top of the fifth to go up 8-5.
The bottom of the order started another rally in the sixth. Haviland singled to start the frame and Korman doubled to get two in scoring position. After a walk and fielder's choice Stonelake delivered again with a two-run single, making it an 8-7 game.
That brought Elliott Fuller out of the bullpen and he got the job done for Indiana Southeast. He went the final 3 2/3 innings allowing just one hit and striking out five. The Grenadiers added an insurance run in the eighth to assist in the 9-7 win.
Korman had a big game for the Ranger offense going 3-for-4 with three runs scored and two RBI. Stonelake had two hits and three RBI while Anderson and Haviland each came up with two hits.
Game Two (
Box Score)
Mike Nicks pitched eight strong innings, allowing just one earned run, to earn his second win of the season.
Parkside took a 2-0 lead in the second on a two-run double by Haviland. After the Prairie Stars cut the lead in half,
Taylor Nehls drove in
Chris Glynn with an RBI-single for a 3-1 lead.
The Rangers yielded a couple of unearned runs in the third inning to tie the score but went back in front in the fifth.
Cody Gilles doubled to start the inning and came around to score when Anderson's bunt single was thrown into the outfield.
Two more unearned runs in the fifth put Parkside in the hole for the first time. That changed in the seventh in when the Rangers scored four runs and never looked back.
Anderson and Haviland both contributed two-run doubles. All four men that scored reached via walk or hit by pitch.
As Nicks was shutting down the Prairie Stars the Rangers kept adding to their lead. Brennan singled, stole second, moved to third on an error, and scored on a wild pitch for a run in the eighth.
They tacked on another in the nine thanks to another error that allowed Glynn to score after a walk and stolen base.
Haviland continued his big day going 2-for-4 with four RBI. Anderson had two hits and two RBI while Nehls and Gilles scored twice.
Parkside will now prepare for opening weekend in the GLVC. On Saturday they'll take on conference newcomer William Jewell. Sunday they'll head to Kansas City for another doubleheader against Rockhurst. Both days are scheduled to start at 12:00 p.m.
