THE RUNDOWN
No. 25 DBU fell behind 8-6 in the ninth inning Saturday, but Kody Funderburk's bases-loaded, walk-off walk completed a three-run comeback, helped by two home runs from Matt Duce, to earn the series victory over Southern Illinois.

Devlin Granberg led off the bottom of the ninth by taking a pitch from SIU closer Ryan Netemeyer to the arm. Tim Millard followed with a double to the left center gap to bring up Duce, who walked to load the bases. Jimmy Glowenke walked to drive in his second run of the game. Millard came around to score the tying run on a wild pitch with Luke Bandy at the plate. After SIU (18-16, 4-4 Missouri Valley Conference) intentionally walked Garrett Wolforth, Funderburk drew a five-pitch base on balls to give the Patriots (22-10, 4-1 MVC) their first walk-off of 2018.

The ninth-inning Saluki lead was the second one the Patriots overcame Saturday. Duce's second long ball of the game, a three-run blast into the fourth tree from the right field foul pole, tied the score at 6-6 in the fifth.

Funderburk started the game on the mound for the Patriots, throwing 3.2 innings and allowing six runs (four earned) before being moved to designated hitter. Luke Eldred and Jarod Bayless combined to hold SIU scoreless for 4.2 innings before MacGregor Hines surrendered the two ninth-inning tallies en route to his fifth win of the year.

 
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- DBU has come back to tie or take the lead in the seventh inning or later in five straight games.
- In his last three games against the Salukis, Duce is 7-10 with six homers.
- Funderburk's six strikeouts on the mound were a career high.

 
COACH DAN HEEFNER ON HIS TEAM'S NINTH-INNING APPROACH
"[Netemeyer]'s got good stuff… And he's the kind of guy you're not going to take pitches against. He's going to give you pitches to hit… I think the big play in that inning was Millard's double with two strikes. That put some pressure on them. After that, I thought we had outstanding plate discipline."

 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
33 -  Jameson Hannah extended his hitting streak to 33 straight games.
30  - Thirty percent of Duce's career home runs have come against SIU.
10 - Duce and Glowenke have combined for 10 of DBU's 15 RBI's in the series.
 
 UP NEXT
DBU goes for the sweep Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. at Horner Ballpark, with Trevor Conn set to start for the Patriots and Brad Harrison for the Salukis.