Box Score The Valparaiso University baseball team finished out the 2026 season on Saturday afternoon in Carbondale, Ill., falling 13-3 in eight innings in the rubber match of the season-closing, three-game series. This marked the final day in a Valpo uniform for a 16-member senior class.
 
How It Happened

• Valpo jumped out to an early lead before the first out of the game had been recorded, as three straight Beacons reached base from the outset including a two-run double by redshirt junior Thomas Cooper (Brentwood, Tenn. / Ravenwood).
• The Salukis responded with four in the bottom of the first, two of which were unearned, to take a 4-2 lead through one.
• Valpo stranded a man at third in the top of the third, then Michael Mylott led off the bottom of the inning with a solo shot that narrowly cleared the left-field fence to make it 5-2 in favor of SIU. The Salukis went on to make it a five-run inning, increasing the lead to 9-2 through three.
• Senior Hunter Frost (Farmington, Minn. / Farmington) put up a zero in the fourth, issuing a two-out walk but nothing else in his final collegiate outing.
• Senior Christian Hack (Oak Forest, Ill. / Tinley Park) worked around a leadoff single to fire a scoreless fifth.
• Senior Joe Seiber (Homer Glen, Ill. / Lockport) induced an inning-ending double play to post a scoreless sixth.
• The Beacons picked up a run as Cal Schembra (Greenwood, Ind. / Center Grove) recorded an RBI on a fielder's choice bouncer in the top of the seventh to make it 9-3.
• Southern Illinois tacked on a run after starting the seventh inning with a double and a single, but Spencer Boynton (Tampa, Fla. / Seffner Christian) struck out three straight to retire the side.  
• Southern Illinois scored three times in the bottom of the eighth to clinch the run-rule victory.

Inside the Game

• The top four batters in the Valpo order combined for seven of the team's eight hits, with Kuska, Cooper and Kegerreis lashing out two hits apiece.
• Kuska and Kegerreis entered the season's final day in a virtual tie for the team lead in batting average. Kuska took the early lead as he had hits in each of his first two plate appearances, while Kegerreis was retired the first two times through the order. However, that flipped the third and fourth times through the lineup, and Kuska was retired in his fifth at-bat while Kegerreis batted only four times to claim the team lead in batting average at .330 to Kuska's .327.
• Kegerreis recorded Valpo's highest batting average since the 2022 campaign, when Ryan Maka hit .345.
• All six relief pitchers who took the mound for the Beacons were seniors appearing in their final game.