Baseball Upsets Southern Illinois Before Falling to Indiana State to Close Season at MVC Championship

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Down 5-2 in the eighth inning, the Belmont University baseball mounted a memorable comeback and defeated the No. 3 seed Southern Illinois, 6-5, in an elimination game on Thursday morning at the MVC Championship in Terre Haute, Indiana, before falling to No. 1 seed Indiana State on Thursday afternoon, 10-0, in another elimination game to end the season.
 
Game 1
 
Belmont pulled off a remarkable comeback in a win-or-go-home elimination game on Thursday morning, defeating No. 3 seed Southern Illinois, 6-5.
 
The Bruins trailed 4-1 in the seventh inning and 5-2 in the eighth inning, but refused to quit, scoring three runs in the eighth inning to tie the game at 5-5, before Ethan Harden delivered a two-strike, two-out RBI single in the ninth inning to score Blake Barton and give Belmont a one-run lead.
 
Harden (W, 5-2) then went out to pitch the ninth inning and recorded the final three outs to give Belmont the upset victory.
 
The game started in rocky fashion, with Belmont stranding the bases loaded in both the first and third innings.
 
Heading into the fourth inning, Southern Illinois led, 1-0. In the fourth, Jack Rando drew a leadoff walk before Jeff Clarke singled and stole second base to put men at second and third.
 
Mason Landers then grounded out to the shortstop to drive in Rando, tying the game at 1-1.
 
A three-run homer from Southern Illinois' third baseman Ryan Rodriguez gave the Salukis a 4-1 lead in the fifth.
 
Trailing by three runs in the seventh, Jeff Clarke drew a walk before Mason Landers reached on a Southern Illinois error. Sam Slaughter stepped in and singled through the right side, driving in Clarke and making it a 4-2 affair.
 
A solo home run in the bottom of the seventh for Southern Illinois pushed their lead to 5-2 going to the eighth.
 
In the eighth inning, Blake Barton set the tone with a ringing leadoff double to the left-center gap.
 
After a groundout and a popout, Belmont proceeded to send four straight men to the plate, as Harden and Clarke both drew walks to load the bases.
 
Landers, who had been searching for his first hit at the MVC Championship, came through in the clutch with a two-out double down the right field line, scoring two and bringing Belmont within a run at 5-4.
 
After Brodey Heaton was intentionally walked to load the bases, Slaughter worked a seven-pitch walk to drive in the tying run at 5-5.
 
Harden worked a scoreless eighth inning and then came up to bat in the top of the ninth with two outs and the go-ahead run at second base in the form of Barton.
 
Behind in the count, 1-2, Harden worked the count full at 3-2 before smacking a single through the right side into shallow right field. Barton was sent home on an aggressive send and the gamble paid off, as the throw in from the Southern Illinois outfielder ended up off-target, with Barton sliding in to give Belmont a 6-5 lead.
 
After giving himself the lead, Harden then re-took the mound for the bottom of the ninth and kept the Salukis off the board, clinching a thrilling upset victory.
 
Jalen Borders delivered a gritty start on the mound, tossing 96 pitches to eclipse his previous season-high of 53 pitches. The junior left-hander struck out six and walked none while limiting Southern Illinois to four runs.
 
After Jett Thielke worked the seventh inning, Harden shut the door with two scoreless frames in relief.
 
Game 2
 
Returning to Bob Warn Field after a few hours of rest following their morning win over Southern Illinois, Belmont took on No. 1 seed Indiana State in another elimination game on Thursday afternoon, where they fell to the red-hot Sycamores, 10-0, in eight innings.
 
Indiana State came in ranked as high as No. 9 in some national polls having won 31 of their last 34 games, and put the game away late on their home field with a four-run fifth inning and a three-run seventh inning to end the Bruins' season.
 
Belmont kept the game tight early on, with Joe Ruzicka delivering four solid innings to keep the game within a run at 1-0 in favor of Indiana State heading into the fifth inning.
 
From there, the Sycamores started to put things together offensively on the way to the run-rule result, sending ten men to the plate in the fifth and nine men to the plate in the seventh.
 
Belmont closes their inaugural season in the Missouri Valley Conference at 27-33, winning four MVC series in all and earning their first two victories at the MVC Championship in program history.
 
Additionally, the 2023 season saw Belmont secure a winning record at home for the 15^th time in the last 17 seasons and pull off a series win over Big 12-foe Kansas at home in March, the first home series win over a Power Five opponent since 2000.
 
Belmont earned four all-conference honors following the regular season and earned two MVC Pitcher of the Week nods and one MVC Player of the Week award.
 
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