THE LEAD
DBU emerged victorious in the nightcap of Friday's doubleheader, defeating Illinois State, 11-4, on Friday night at Horner Ballpark. Austin Listi went 2-for-3 with a pair of solo homeruns and three RBI.
 
Kragen Kechely (2-0) earned the win after pitching 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief, striking out five Redbirds and allowing just one hit. Trevor Cross (1-1) suffered the loss after giving up the four go-ahead runs in the sixth inning.
 
Listi gave DBU an early 1-0 lead with one swing of the bat, sending a ball over the wall in left in the first inning. ISU answered in the top of the second on an RBI single from Noah Sandler to tie it up. The Redbirds jumped ahead by a score of 2-1 by way of a Collin Braithwaite RBI double. Listi stepped up to the plate again in the bottom of the fourth inning and repeated his first at-bat with another solo blast to left to draw the game even at 2-2. In the top of the fifth, ISU regained the lead with a two-run homerun off the bat of Owen Miller.
 
The Patriots cut into the deficit in the fifth as Jameson Hannah reached second on an error, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on a Listi sac fly to make it 4-3. After Coby Weaver began the top of the sixth with a strikeout, Dan Heefner went to his bullpen for Kechely, who pitched through the inning in between a pair of hit-by-pitches. Weaver finished the day with 5 1/3 innings of work and five strikeouts, allowing four runs on six hits. In the bottom of the inning, DBU rallied for four runs beginning with a leadoff solo shot by Camden Duzenack. The Patriots added a pair of RBI singles and scored on a balk to carry a 7-4 lead into the seventh.
 
Kechely retired five straight from the sixth to the eighth before giving up his first hit, a double to Joe Aeilts, but responded by setting down the final two batters of the inning on strikes. DBU added four insurance runs in the bottom of the inning, highlighted by a two-run double off the bat of Matt Duce, who later scored on a Duzenack groundout. Evan Sandmann also tacked on an RBI triple to knock in Garrett Wolforth.
 
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
 - Camden Duzenack went 5-for-9 with six RBI and a pair of homeruns in Friday's doubleheader.
 - Coby Weaver (5.1) and Kragen Kechely (3.2) each set season highs in innings pitched.
 - When scoring first, DBU is 13-2 in 2017.
 
COACH DAN HEEFNER – ON THE TEAM'S OFFENSE IN THE DOUBLEHEADER
"I thought they did a good job with that. We fell behind in both games, but we never panicked or anything. That's what a good offense does. If you have quality at bats, guys battling pitch after pitch, eventually you wear them down and have a big inning. That's our goal. That's our mentality. Obviously it doesn't work every inning or every game. That's something we are trying to get better at."
 
CAMDEN DUZENACK – ON BATTLING THROUGH A DOUBLEHEADER
"We were here for close to 12 hours today, but that's not super unusual for us because we always seem to be up on the field. It's good practice for postseason, because you run into doubleheaders in the conference tournament and the regionals. It's something we take pride in. Sometimes you're going to have to win two games in a day. Thankfully, today, we were able to do that."
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
3 – Friday night marked the third multi-homer in Austin Listi's career
8 – DBU has been victorious in all eight games in which they have scored double-digit runs.
6 – The nightcap's attendance of 1,461 was the sixth-largest crowd at Horner Ballpark.
 
UP NEXT
DBU and ISU face off in the series finale at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Horner Ballpark. Jordan Martinson (3-2) takes the mound for the Patriots against Brent Headrick (0-2) for the Redbirds.