After a pair of dramatic, walk-off victories on Friday, the Valparaiso University baseball team incurred a 10-4 setback to visiting Southern Illinois on Saturday afternoon at Emory G. Bauer Field. Valpo tied a season high with 15 hits in the defeat. The game was delayed one hour due to rain, but play occurred uninterrupted after the 2 p.m. first pitch.
How It Happened
- After pushing across a run in the second inning, Southern Illinois tacked on three in the third to grab an early 4-0 lead.
- Valpo responded in the bottom of the third as Brady Renfro (Antigo, Wis. / Antigo) lashed a single to center to plate Riley Dent (Long Beach, Calif. / Wilson) and make it 4-1.
- SIU added on with one run in the sixth and broke it open with three in the seventh to go up 8-1.
- Valpo plated two on RBI singles by Renfro and Parker Johnson (Golden Valley, Minn. / Hopkins) in the bottom of the seventh, but the Salukis got those back on a two-run homer by Nick Neville in the eighth.
- Jacob Rosenkranz (Lincolnshire, Ill. / Stevenson) pitched a scoreless top of the ninth, working around one walk.
- Johnson delivered an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to make it 10-4, which proved to be the final score.
Inside the Game
- Valpo tied the March 20 game at Western Kentucky for its season-high hit total of 15.
- Dent, Johnson and Matt Olive (Minneapolis, Minn. / Blake School) posted three hits apiece. That marked Johnson’s third three-hit output this season as he owns the most three-hit games on the team. For Olive, the three hits represented a career high and his first career multi-hit performance.
- Fields allowed four runs on six hits in five frames while fanning 10 and walking two. He posted a double-figure strikeout total for the third time this season.
- Renfro also had a multi-hit effort, his third of the year and second in the last four games.
Up Next
Valpo (7-21, 2-9) and Southern Illinois (26-11, 6-9) will conclude the series at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Links to live coverage are available on ValpoAthletics.com.
