Whitbread earns All-Tournament honours for Indiana State

Great Lake Canadians alum Tyler Whitbread (Camlachie, Ont.) has earned All-Tournament honours for his performance with the Indiana State Sycamores. Photo: Indiana State Athletics

May 26, 2019

By Tim McCaughan

Indiana State Athletics

Sycamores Win Four-Straight Elimination Games to Claim MVC Tournament Championship

NORMAL, Ill. -- Indiana State baseball claimed its seventh Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Championship and the first since 1995 Saturday night at Duffy Bass Field. The Sycamores defeated Dallas Baptist,10-6 in game one of the day to force a winner take all game in which Indiana State defeated the Patriots, 16-3, to claim the crown.

With the Saturday sweep, the Sycamores earned the MVC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament set to begin next weekend at 16 different regional sites throughout the country. It marks the first time since 2014 that the Sycamores will participate in NCAA Postseason play and the second time under head coach Mitch Hannahs.

Chris Ayers (DH) was named the Tournament MVP while Jarrod Watkins (2B), CJ Huntley (OF) and Tyler Whitbread (Camlachie, Ont.) (P) were named to the All-Tournament Team.

The Sycamores now await Selection Monday at 12 p.m. ET on ESPNU when the NCAA Baseball Selection Committee releases 64-team bracket. A watch party will be announced at a later time.

Game One Recap

Jarrod Watkins' two sacrifice flies drove in the tying and go-ahead runs, Austin Moralis pitched 4 2/3 gritty innings in relief and Chris Ayers blasted a three-run homer as No. 3 seed Indiana State upended No. 1 seed Dallas Baptist 9-5 in the first championship game of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at Duffy Bass Field. The second, and deciding, championship game followed later Saturday afternoon.

Watkins' second sac fly put Indiana State (40-16) ahead 5-4 in the sixth and the Sycamores scored an insurance run right away on Roby Enriquez's ground out. But Ayers' three-run homer in the eighth gave ISU a four-run lead entering the ninth.

Moralis (1-0) came on in relief of ISU starter Zach Frey to start the third inning and gave up a single to Augie Isaacson and a home run to Blayne Jones to put DBU on top 4-2. After a walk to Bryce Ball, who was erased in a subsequent double play, Moralis retired nine straight Patriots before surrendering a solo homer to Andres Sosa with two outs in the seventh to bring DBU within 6-5.

With a 2-0 count on Augie Isaacson, the next batter, Tyler Grawer replaced Moralis on the mound. Grawer retired Isaacson on a ground out and set down the last seven Patriot hitters to earn his eighth save of the season.

The pressure on Grawer's ninth inning was eased by Ayers home run, which came after Clay Dungan and Jarrod Watkins walked in the bottom of the eighth. Ayers had just one home run in the regular season, but has hit three in the tournament, including this drive just right of the scoreboard in right field.

Dallas Baptist (41-17) got home runs from Evan Sandman, Bryce Jones and Andres Sosa, but the Patriots pitchers surrendered 10 walks—five of which scored. Cole Reeves (1-1), the third of four DBU pitchers, took the loss.

Game Two Recap

Clay Dungan and Roby Enriquez slammed home runs to key a six-run first inning which carried Indiana State to a 16-3 win over Dallas Baptist, and the 2019 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament title Saturday at Duffy Bass Field.

Dungan led off the game with a blast over the right-center field wall, his ninth of the season. After an out and a walk, Enriquez slugged his fourth of the season. Five singles in the next six batters—the last by Dungan – produced the other three runs as the Sycamores sent 11 men to bat in the first inning.

A CJ Huntley leadoff homer and a two-run double by Jarrod Watkins made it 9-0 Indiana State in the third. Huntley plated the 10th Sycamore run with a fourth-inning single driving in Chris Ayers.

Dungan paced the 16-hit Sycamore attack with his two hits in the first and two more in the eighth, finishing 4-for-5 with two singles, a double, a home run and a walk in six appearances. Leading 10-1 in the eighth, Indiana State collected four singles, a double, two hit batters and a walk to tally six runs.

The Sycamores (41-17) won their fourth game in two days to capture their seventh Valley tournament title, first since 1995. It's the 10th NCAA Tournament bid for Indiana State, the first since 2014. Indiana State's sweep of DBU on Saturday avenged a three-game sweep of the regular-season series by the Patriots.

DBU (41-17) and Illinois State (34-24), regular-season co-champions of the Valley, both are awaiting at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament.

The No. 3 seed Sycamores forced the second championship game of the tournament by beating No. 1 seed DBU 9-5 earlier Saturday afternoon, thanks to a three-run homer by Chris Ayers and 4 2/3 innings of middle relief from winning pitcher Austin Moralis (1-0).

Luke Bandy's RBI single in the fourth, one of just four Patriot hits, scored Jimmy Glowenke with the first DBU run of the game. The Patriots tacked on two more in the eighth.

All-Tournament Team

C - Herbert Iser, DBU

1B - Andres Sosa, DBU

2B – Jarrod Watkins, Indiana State

3B - Joe Butler, Illinois State

SS - Aidan Huggins, Illinois State

DH - Chris Ayers, Indiana State (MVP)

OF - Ian Walters, Southern Illinois

OF - Luke Bandy, DBU

OF - CJ Huntley, Indiana State

P - Tyler Whitbread, Indiana State

P - Jordan Martinson, DBU

P- Brent Headrick, Illinois State