Dennis Clark
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE — It’s hard to imagine a college baseball game with a combined 10 runs scored being labeled a pitchers’ duel.
But that was the case for Indiana State and Eastern Illinois as the two teams were hooked up in a 1-1 deadlock entering the bottom of the eighth inning.
Robby Ort, a true freshman for the Sycamores, finally providing the game-changing event, a line-drive blast to the warning track in centerfield resulting in a two-run triple for a sudden 3-1 ISU lead.
The Sycamores bats came alive following Ort’s blow, plating seven runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to defeat visiting Eastern Illinois 8-2 in a nonconference game at Bob Warn Field on Tuesday afternoon.
“He’s just been clutch for us all year,” ISU coach Rick Heller said of Ort. “As a true freshman, he stepped up big today and had two big hits.”
The other big hit referred to by Heller was Ort’s run-scoring single in the bottom of the sixth inning that erased a tenuous 1-0 EIU lead.
“Feels good, just coming in and contribute for the team,” Ort said. “I’ve been pretty clutch the past few games. When the team needs me most I do what I can to help them out.”
What was a bit unusual about Ort’s triple was the defensive alignment of the EIU outfielders, being shifted way around to left field for the left-handed batting Ort.
“No, they haven’t been lately,” Ort said when asked if he had been defended in that fashion this season. “Their scouting report had them playing toward left field. I saw them before I hit it and once I hit it, I knew it was in. Felt good.”
With one out, Tyler Graham started the ISU eighth-inning rally with a walk, followed by a single from Phil Liniger. Ort’s triple plated Graham and pinch-runner Bryan Chestnut for the 3-1 lead.
Jeremy Lucas followed by drawing a walk, stealing second base, then Levi Ferguson drove in Ort with a RBI-single. Pinch-hitter Ben Caple hit a one-hop smash to the EIU second baseman, but his throw to the plate was late allowing Lucas to score on the fielder’s choice.
Ryan Strausborger added a RBI-single, then Kyle Burnam singled. Luke Fieser hit a long fly ball to center for a sacrifice fly — but not only did Caple score, Strausborger scored too as the result of a terrible throw-in by the EIU centerfielder for an error.
In all, 11 ISU batters came to the plate in the eighth inning, facing three different EIU pitchers.
“We ended up breaking out big late, but it was a tight ballgame,” Heller stated. “They pitched it as well as we did. We’ll take [the victory].”
As is typical of midweek games in the college ranks, there were a lot of pitchers getting in work. ISU used seven pitchers, while the Panthers ran five pitchers to the mound.
JT Stenftenagel was the starter for ISU, tossing three shutout innings. Brandon Dorsett, Joe Rodriguez, Brett Merkley and Kevin Mann — the winning pitcher — all had scoreless innings. The only EIU tallies were single runs scored off Brandon Flora (fourth inning) and Tyler Browning (ninth inning).
“I was proud of the pitching staff,” Heller said. “It’s not always easy coming in throwing an inning, an inning, an inning. They did a good job of that, kept [EIU] offstride. It worked well. When all the guys come in and throw strikes, it’s pretty effective.”
Heller is a proponent of employing a pitching-staff-by-committee approach to midweek contests.
“It’s better than the bullpen,” Heller said. “I like doing that midweek … it gets everybody in the game and they seem to throw a lot better on the weekends.”
Indiana State improved to 7-4 on the season and will play three games this weekend in the Dayton (Ohio) Classic, starting off by taking on the host team at 3 p.m. on Friday.
“We’re making progress,” Heller concluded. “That’s been kind of our battle cry the last two weeks as we get outside more. We just need to improve every day.
“Our lineup’s starting to come together a little bit. We did well on the mound. We had a lot of guys that got into the game today that we’ll need in the [Missouri] Valley [Conference]. Some of those guys haven’t pitched much, so to see them come in and throw strikes is a good sign.”
