It took 11 innings, but the Illinois Springfield baseball team was victorious in its first game ever played in school history, as it came away with a 19-14 win over Alcorn State Friday night.
The Prairie Stars (1-0) jumped on top with six runs in three innings, but senior pitcher Ty Morris couldn’t hold ASU (0-5) back. The Braves brought the game within one after a four run third inning and in doing so chased Morris, as he allowed five runs on six hits and walked five, while fanning two in 2.1 innings.
UIS was down 10-7 going into the eighth inning and got the game back to a one run contest, but ASU added two runs in the bottom half of the same frame. In the ninth, the Prairie Stars put a five spot on the board to take a 14-12 lead, but again the ASU tied the game.
After a quiet top of the 10th, freshman pitcher Barry Amett (1-0), who was entering his second inning of work played Houdini and got out of a bases loaded two-out jam to force an 11th inning.
In the 11th, UIS made sure to put enough room between them and ASU, as the Stars put a five spot up in the inning. Amett pitched his third inning of work quickly, as he got the Braves to go down quietly.
“The biggest thing is I’m proud of the kids,” said head coach Brian Grunzke. “They (ASU) would take leads and we would come back and vice versa and our kids never gave up. We played a DI school in our first ever game and we battled until the end.”
The win was featured in a February 26, 2011, edition of The State Journal-Register.
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