EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – SIUE baseball opened its home season with a 10th-inning walk-off win Tuesday, defeating Illinois State 6-5 at Simmons Baseball Complex.
A ground ball up the middle from Ole Arntson snuck under Illinois State shortstop Luke Cheng allowing Brennan Orf to score the winning from second base.
"It's a great home-opening win for our guys and it keeps the confidence going," SIUE Head Coach Sean Lyons said. "It took a total team effort today. We were fortunate to get the miscue there in extra innings to secure the win."
The Cougars (3-1) took an early lead with a two-run first inning against ISU starter Thomas Harper. Orf and Josh Ohl led off the inning with back-to-back doubles. Ohl doubled in Orf and then scored on single by Arntson.
Harper gave up just the two runs on five hits in four innings.
The Redbirds (2-2) managed a single run in four innings against SIUE starter Garrett Helsel before scoring three times in the sixth against reliever Alex Scherer to lead 4-2.
Nick Terrell's two-run single highlighted a three-run seventh to put the Cougars back on top 5-4.
Illinois State's Daniel Pacella led off the ninth inning with a home run to tie the game.
Helsel, making his first collegiate start, tossed four innings, allowing a run on a single hit. He walked one.
"We got a great first start out of Garrett Helsel today," Lyons said. "That was a highlight."
DeLong allowed just the run on two hits over 3 1/3 innings of work. He walked two and struck out two. Ponder (1-0) worked a 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief for his first win in a Cougar uniform.
"Tyler DeLong and Zeus Ponder out of the pen; that's two times out of the pen that they have been really good for us," Lyons said.
SIUE outhit Illinois State 10-6. The top five in the Cougar order accounted for eight of the hits. Orf, Ohl, Arntson each had two hits apiece.
"The quick start was another highlight," Lyons added. "Our guys made sure they had a pitch to hit. Harper has a really good breaking ball and we got to him early, but then he settled in a gave us some fits."
SIUE travels to Louisiana-Monroe for a three-game series beginning Friday.
