Saturday’s MVC Championship game between the Indiana State Sycamores and the Evansville Purple Aces ended in dramatic fashion with Evansville having its back against the wall late in the ninth inning.
Evansville went into the ninth inning facing a 5-2 deficit. A loss would have eliminated the Aces and given Indiana State the conference championship since the Sycamores already defeated them earlier in the winner’s bracket of the tournament.
The Purple Aces were down to the final out after the first two batters were retired in the inning. Evansville needed a miracle to keep their season alive. Fortunately for Aces, that’s exactly what they got.
The next three batters got on base, which brought the winning run to the plate in first baseman Chase Hug. Hug silenced the road crowd at Bob Warn Field with a walk-off grand slam to force a winner-take-all game.
Many took to social media to appreciate the miraculous walk-off from Hug to keep their season alive.
It was a fairytale ending to this game for Evansville. However, the celebration of this unlikely win would be short-lived.
The two teams faced off in their second game shortly after this game ended, and it went far differently. Indiana State completely shut down Evansville, avoiding another collapse in the ninth inning in a 6-0 victory to advance to the 2023 NCAA college baseball tournament.
While Evansville obviously would have loved to win the second game of the matchup as well, their comeback in Game 1 is something that the players on that team will certainly never forget.
[The Comeback on Twitter] Photo Credit: ESPN+
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.