The Illinois State baseball team came up on the short end of a 13-10 score in a back-and-forth game against Belmont Sunday, the Redbirds' final game of their season opening series.

The Redbirds were able to overcome an early 5-1 deficit by scoring five runs in the top of the fifth, but Belmont (2-1) slowly rebuilt its lead, before adding four insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth. Illinois State (1-2) scored four runs in the top of the ninth, and brought the potential game-tying run to the plate, but was unable to continue the rally.

Jared Hendren went 3-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs, and Brian Rodemoyer homered for the second game in a row to pace the Redbird offense. The Redbirds allowed a season-high 13 runs, as four of five Redbird relievers allowed at least one run after starter David Meade was tagged with five runs over the first 3.1 innings.

Illinois State's five-run fifth gave the Redbirds a 6-5 advantage, but Belmont knotted the score up again in the bottom half of the frame an RBI groundout from Tyler Walsh.

Hendren led the Redbird bats with three hits, while Daniel Dwyer, Rodemoyer and Owen Miller collected two hits each. Rodemoyer tallied four RBIs in the game, and finished the three-game series with 10 RBIs to start the season.

The Redbirds return to action Thursday when they begin a four-game series at Oregon.