TERRE HAUTE —
Entering Thursday’s game against Indiana State, Missouri State starting pitcher Nick Petree had gone 72 1/3 innings without surrendering an earned run, an unofficial NCAA record.
Petree’s streak against ISU lasted 1/3 of an inning … and the Sycamores didn’t stop hitting until they had their first Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship in 27 years.
ISU pounded 15 hits — 12 off Petree — and defeated Missouri State 6-3 at Bob Warn Field. Unlike 1985, the last time the Sycamores won the MVC, they have this title all to themselves. It is the first outright MVC championship in program history.
A groundout to second by Missouri State’s Spiker Helms clinched the victory in the ninth. First baseman Jon Hedges caught the final out and then ISU pitcher Dakota Bacus was mobbed in a celebratory dogpile at the mound.
“It’s hard to describe the feeling. We worked hard and we deserve it. Our thing is to work harder than the other team. That’s what we did,” said ISU catcher Jeremy Lucas, who was 3-for-4 with a triple and two RBI.
Memories of 2009 — when ISU needed to win just one game against Missouri State and failed to do so — were erased straight away.
“We came out locked in. We have a great group of guys, great seniors and great leaders who aren’t seniors. We’re not done yet. We’ll keep working,” said senior Kyle Burnam, one of three Sycamores on that 2009 team still on the roster.
ISU’s 2009 swoon pales in comparison to coach Rick Heller’s 2009 memories. His program eliminated from underneath him at Northern Iowa in 2009. He was hired at ISU to replace Lindsay Meggs later that year, but given where Heller had come from, his first MVC regular season championship was extra special.
“To win this league, especially with the kind of season this league is having, is so hard,” said Heller, who won one MVC Tournament championship at UNI. “I had good teams at Northern Iowa that I felt were very competitive and they’d finish fourth. To finally have it come to fruition, it’s unbelievable.”
ISU (41-13, 14-5) used a patient approach against Petree, working counts and hitting to contact against Petree’s off-speed stuff. Landon Curry led off with a floater single to center field and went to second on a sacrifice. Jeremy Lucas then singled to left to score Curry and put ISU up 1-0.
The Sycamores were even more locked-in during the second inning. Ryan Walterhouse led off with a double to left. Walterhouse went to third and Koby Kraemer reached base on a bunt in which Petree couldn’t make a play.
Curry made the Bears pay two batters later as he hit a double over Missouri State left fielder Dylan Becker misjudged the ball and let it go over his head. Walterhouse and Kraemer scored on the Curry double to make it 3-0.
By the end of the third inning, every ISU batter save Rob Ort and Tyler Wampler (who had sacrificed in his at-bat) had reached base.
“He’s a great pitcher, but we were patient and had a good approach. I don’t think he had his best stuff, but we took advantage of his mistakes. The bats finally came alive,” Lucas said.
But the early work was undone by lack of execution and mistakes on ISU’s part. It started on the basepaths during ISU’s two-run second, when Curry tried to stretch a double into a triple and was easily thrown out. Kyle Burnam tripled on the next at-bat and would’ve scored Curry.
It continued into the third inning. After Eric Cheray led off with walk, Medrano hit a tailor-made double play grounder to second, but shortstop Wampler dropped the ball trying to step on second. All Bears were safe.
Two batters later, Missouri State (35-18, 11-7) made ISU pay. Brent Seifert’s two-run double chopped ISU’s lead to 3-2.
In the fourth, ISU starter Dakota Bacus struggled with his control and Becker drew a two-out walk. Cheray then doubled down the left field line to tie the game. Bacus threw 27 pitches in a punishing fourth.
The stalemate continued into the sixth inning. ISU continued to hit Petree, but stranded five runners in the fourth and fifth innings alone.
ISU loaded the bases again in the sixth with two outs and caught a break from Missouri State second baseman Medrano. Lucas Hileman hit a chopper to short that should have ended the inning, but Medrano didn’t cover second base. Shortstop Cheray had to hurry a throw to first, but Hileman beat it. Curry scored to make it 4-3.
Curry’s success at the plate was emblematic of ISU’s success at the dish against Petree. Curry was 2-for-3 and he drew two walks with two runs scored.
“Landon Curry was so big tonight. The tone he set was big. Our energy level overall was outstanding,” Heller said.
Meanwhile, Bacus worked out of his early trouble. Bacus threw 119 pitches, but allowed just four baserunners in the final five innings of work. Bacus struck out five overall.
Bacus pitched a complete game. He admitted it would’ve been hard for Heller to pull him off the mound to finish it.
“In the third and fourth, I let the strike zone get to me. Coach told me to just pound it out and I’d be fine,” Bacus said. “I told them around the sixth inning they’d have a hard time [taking] me out today. This is my game. There’s no way anyone else was going to get this but me. The feeling is so overwhelming right now.”
ISU added insurance runs in the eighth. Kyle Burnam doubled and was knocked in via a Lucas triple to right. Lucas scored on a passed ball by Missouri State catcher Luke Voit.
ISU no longer has to worry about the MVC championship, but the remaining games in the series have implications for ISU’s at-large chances should it fail to win next week’s MVC Tournament.
Sean Manaea (5-1, 3.09) will start for the Sycamores against Missouri State’s Cody Schumacher (7-1, 4.02) at 6:30 p.m. tonight.
n Lucas named Johnny Bench Award semifinalist — Lucas, ISU’s leading hitter at .365 — was named Thursday one of 12 semifinalists for the Johnny Bench Award, given to the nation’s best collegiate catcher.
Panelists will vote and finalists will be announced on June 4.
College
Related Photos
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We are the champions: The Indiana State baseball team celebrates winning the Missouri Valley Championship with a 6-3 win over Missouri State Thursday evening at Bob Warn Field. (Tribune-Star/Bob Poynter)
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Hot: Indiana State's #1, Tyler Wampler fields a hard hit ball to his shortstop position during game action against the Missouri State Bears Thursday evening at Bob Warn Field.
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Stolen base: Indiana State's #7, Lucas Hileman steals second base during late inning action against Missouri State Thursday evening.
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Take one for the team: Indiana State's #30 Jon Hedges gets hit by a pitch to load the bases during late action against Missouri State Thursday evening.
Discussion
ISU claims Missouri Valley Conference baseball title
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DeNato proves IU can pitch too
Joey DeNato dispelled the notion that College World Series newcomer Indiana is all about offense.
The junior left-hander threw a four-hitter and the Hoosiers looked mighty comfortable at TD Ameritrade Park while beating Louisville 2-0 on Saturday night. -
Etherington, Moore happy to be with ISU basketball
Not even two weeks into their college experience, Indiana State freshmen men’s basketball players Alex Etherington and Demetrius Moore stood sentinel as 115 kids ran around them collecting basketballs and getting autographs at the Greg Lansing Basketball Camp on Thursday.
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ISU's Johnson invited to World University Games
Indiana State senior Felisha Johnson will be traveling the world this summer after being named to represent the United States in the women’s shot put at the World University Games in Kazan, Russia.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Close, but no cigar, theme for ISU sports in 2012-13
When I covered my first event of Indiana State’s 2012-13 season — ISU’s opening football game at Indiana — I was the first one in the press box at IU’s Memorial Stadium. I’m never the first one in the press box.
Maybe the prospect of ISU’s season had me so pumped that I decided to get it started close to three hours early? (Or more truthfully, maybe I was over-vigilent about predicted traffic horrors on the Indiana 46 bypass that never came to pass.) -
Q&A: ISU football coach Mike Sanford ready for fall
It’s hard to believe, but Mike Sanford has already been Indiana State’s football coach for six months.
Time flies, but Sanford’s task of preparing for his first season in charge of the Sycamores comes with few breaks. -
Rex streak ends at 7
The Terre Haute Rex table setters — Kyle Kempf and Tyler Wampler — had three of the team’s eight hits Friday at Bob Warn Field, but the Rex offense found itself in a big early deficit for the first time this season.
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Manaea’s selection puts ISU in spotlight
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ISU’s Hope places 13th in NCAA pole vault
Indiana State senior Nicole Hope concluded her final competition of the 2013 outdoor season on Friday as she tied for 13th in the women’s pole vault at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
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Metro roundup: Former Sycamores take talents to CFL
Former Indiana State players Johnny Towalid and Justin Hilton were signed by teams in the Canadian Football League this week.
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Exit Minnesota, enter Oregon State on 2016 football schedule
When the Big Ten Conference implemented a nine-game football schedule starting in 2016 and discouraged members from playing Football Championship Subdivision teams, there was one game on Indiana State’s future schedule that was likely on borrowed time.
ISU’s scheduled game at Minnesota in 2016. -
METRO ROUNDUP: Swift reaches finals of NCAA Championships in 110-meter hurdles
Indiana State junior Greggmar Swift will be among the top eight in the NCAA in the 110-meter hurdles after qualifying for Saturday’s finals on Thursday.
Swift ran a time of 13.51 seconds to take third in his heat. He’ll run in either lane 1 or lane 8 on Saturday.
“I got out pretty good and then I hurdled three or four when I got bumped and it threw me off my rhythm,” said Swift, a native of Barbados. “I tried to get back my rhythm … but I held on for the third place.” -
ISU's Manaea selected 34th overall by Royals
Indiana State pitcher Sean Manaea selected 34th overall by the Kansas City Royals.
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Sycamores ready for more NCAA track success
Five of the six Indiana State athletes in Eugene, Ore., already have had some memorable track and field careers for the Sycamores.
But they’ll go ahead and try to add to their list of accomplishments in the NCAA outdoor championships this weekend.
Dustin Betz has been a scorer and key piece of eight Missouri Valley Conference championship teams between track and cross country. He’ll compete today in the 3,000-meter steeplechase as the Sycamores’ second best in the event behind Jordan Fife. -
Mike Lucas joins ISU football staff
What traits do head football coaches seek out when they hire position coaches?
Indiana State football coach Mike Sanford provided insight into that question as he hired former Southeast Louisiana head coach Mike Lucas to his staff Tuesday. Lucas will be the Sycamores’ defensive line coach.
“You have to look at your staff and see what you need. I felt like in this particular case, I wanted an experienced defensive line coach. I feel like we have a mixture of experience and youth and I want to keep that going,” Sanford said. -
TODD GOLDEN: MVC Tourney can be ISU success story if work is done
Prior to last week’s Missouri Valley Conference baseball tournament at Illinois State’s Duffy Bass Field, fear and loathing prevailed in some corners of the conference.
It seemed that Missouri State, Creighton, and most notably, Wichita State, had a monopoly on the season-ending tournament since the Coolidge Administration. (It had actually been since 1998.) How could the tournament make it without playing in one of the three aforementioned universities’ big venues? - COLLEGE REPORT: Wabash College All-American relay team has TH flavor
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Six Sycamores heading to NCAA Track and Field championships
Three Indiana State seniors and a freshman punched their tickets Friday to the NCAA outdoor track and field championships in two weeks at Eugene, Ore. Two more got the job done Saturday on the campus of UNC Greensoboro in the East Preliminary.
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Sycamores bow out of MVC Tournament
Indiana State’s baseball was out of pitching, and after a loss to Wichita State on Thursday, the Sycamores were out of second-chances too at the Missouri Valley Conference baseball tournament. What the Sycamores weren’t out of was heart, guts and clutch performances from some unlikely sources. But in the end, Friday’s elimination game rematch against the Shockers was a sampling of ISU’s season overall — the Sycamores were out of luck.
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Metro Sports: Chalk up No. 5 for Liz Evans
Senior Liz Evans capped the top career in Rose-Hulman athletics history with her fifth national championship and eighth All-American award at Wisconsin-La Crosse on Friday.
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Four Indiana State athletes advance to NCAA outdoor track and field championships
Three Indiana State seniors and a freshman have punched their tickets to the NCAA outdoor track and field championships in two weeks at Eugene, Ore., with their Friday efforts in the 2013 NCAA East Preliminary at Aggie Stadium on the campus of North Carolina A&T.
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Wichita State shuts out ISU to force elimination-game rematch
Indiana State starting pitcher Greg Kuhlman did his best.
Actually, he did far better than he ever has previously in an ISU uniform, but while Kuhlman’s gutty pitching effort spoke volumes, ISU’s bats remained ominously silent. -
Indiana State baseball now one win from MVC Championship
Indiana State’s Wednesday morning wish list probably read something like this: a dominant complete game effort from starting pitcher Devin Moore, near-immaculate defense to support him, and a steady diet of clutch situational hitting from lineup spots one to nine.
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Terre Haute's Mascari running 10,000 meters for chance to get to Hayward Field
Indiana State freshman and Terre Haute North graduate John Mascari is among the enormous group of Sycamores competing this weekend at the NCAA East Preliminary. The top 48 NCAA track and field competitors in each event on this half of the United States are narrowed down to 12 who will compete at the NCAA meet at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
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Manaea's shoulder causing him latest pain
Indiana State pitcher Sean Manaea has battled through so many aches and pains during the 2013 season that it can be hard to discern the serious pain from the pain he pitches through.
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ISU's Negele answers call in big way in wake of Manaea injury
When Indiana State starting pitcher Sean Manaea slumped on the mound in obvious pain after he took his warm-up pitches, red flags raised for ISU’s Missouri Valley Conference tournament hopes.
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ISU baseball hoping Manaea can get its MVC Tournament moving in right direction
Indiana State’s baseball team has been waiting all season for its stars to align.
But this is the 2013 Sycamores, after all, and after a season in which seemingly little has gone right, it appears its stars will remain crossed at the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. -
ISU track sending record 22 to postseason
On the heels of their thrilling double victory at the 2013 Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships both the Indiana State men and women moved up in the national rankings which were released Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
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ISU's athletic treasure trove
Think of every championship that Indiana State has won in each of its sports, past and present. Think of every tournament — postseason or regular season — which the Sycamores have claimed as their own.
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Ort sets ISU RBI record in 16-7 win
Robby Ort celebrated his Indiana State baseball Senior Day on Saturday by becoming the Sycamores’ all-time leader in RBIs as ISU ended its regular season with a 16-7 win over Bradley at Bob Warn Field.
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Bradley ends 16-game MVC losing streak against ISU
Momentum was the only thing riding on Indiana State’s baseball game against Bradley on Friday. With a five-game winning streak going, ISU wanted to keep the good vibes going into next week’s Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
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