credit: Hailey Waldron
Senior pitcher Josh Smith threw his second complete game of the season on Friday night. Smith allowed one run on 7 hits on his way to a 5-3 win over the Redbirds of Illinois State.
Friday night the Bisons opened up their weekend series with the Redbirds of Illinois State.
Josh Smith made his sixth start of the season. Smith, 4-1 on the year, was coming off of a season-high 15-strikeout game.
Smith would not disappoint in this outing either. Throwing nine complete innings , Smith allowed one run on seven hits. Smith walked one and struck out 15, again.
Illinois State came into the game with a 12-10 record. The Redbirds had won seven out of their last nine.
It was very important for Lipscomb to keep SIU off the bases. Coming into Friday night’s game the Redbirds had 47 stolen bases, nearly surpassing their total from all of last season.
The Bisons gave Smith an early cushion in the first. Zach Messer drove in freshman Lee Wilson on a beautifully executed hit-and-run. Messer drove a fastball right up the middle as Wilson was attempting to steal second.
After three shutout innings from Smith, Lipscomb added another run. Senior Tyler Wilson singled up the middle to score M.L. Williams. Lee Wilson and Corey Hale also scored later in the inning.
The Redbirds answered in the fourth scoring one run on two hits.
Smith struggled in the sixth, allowing two runs on three hits. Smith got out of the inning on his own though, striking out a Redbird for the third out of the inning. The strikeout was Smith’s ninth of the night.
Andrew Nickerson started off the bottom half of the seventh-inning with a bang, literally. Leading off the inning for the Bisons, Nickerson took the second pitch he saw and dealt with it accordingly, sending it over the left field fence giving the Bisons a 5-3 lead.
Smith shut down the rest of the Redbird lineup on the way to his fifth win of the season.
Lipscomb tallied 12 hits on the day. Tyler Wilson had three hits, while Zach Messer, Lee Wilson, and M.L. Williams all had two hits.
Check back to the story for quotes and game photos.