The Illinois State baseball team earned a crucial Missouri Valley Conference win over Evansville, 7-2, at Duffy Bass Field as the 'Birds moved into the top eight of the MVC standings with two weekends left to play in the regular season.

Derek Salata threw seven innings with seven strikeouts and JT Sokolove broke a 2-2 tie in the 6th inning with a solo homer before the Redbirds piled on four more runs.

Illinois State (18-26 overall, 7-14 MVC) also got three hits and two RBIs from Daniel Pacella; two hits and three RBIs from Nick Strong; and a two-inning save by Elijah Dale.

Rasmussen's on-base streak moves to 24 games, the longest by a Redbird this season tallying his seventh multi-steal game of the season as he swiped three bases. Rasmussen is up to 22 steals in 2023, the most in the MVC and most by a 'Bird since Sean Beesley stole 27 in 2014.

Illinois State lost Friday and Saturday before taking the rubber game of the series on Sunday.

Illinois State is scheduled to host UIC from May 12-14 in the penultimate conference series prior to the eight-team MVC Tournament.