Illinois State used a four-run rally and standout pitching from Dan Savas to pick up a 6-1 victory over the Missouri State Bears Wednesday evening in round-two action at the 2013 Missouri Valley Conference Baseballl Championship at Duffy Bass Field. The Redbirds scored four times in the bottom of the third to build a 5-0 lead, then let Savas do the rest to earn his 10th victory of the season with a complete-game effort.
Savas, who matched a career high with 12 strikeouts to become the first ISU pitcher in the Division I era to log 10 wins in a season, set the tone by striking out the side in the first and fanning seven of the first 11 Bears he faced. The Bears’ lone hit over the first three frames came from Keenen Maddox, who singled with one out in the second for the 200th hit of his Missouri State career.
Missouri State (31-22) will try to battle back Thursday (May 23) in an elimination game against Evansville at 12:37 p.m. The winner of that contest will earn a 7:37 p.m. rematch Thursday evening with an Illinois State (38-18) squad that outscored its first two opponents in the tournament by a combined 17-2 margin.