Illinois State left Evansville Saturday afternoon with a Missouri Valley Conference baseball championship, but the real winners were the University of Evansville Purple Aces.

Behind Nate Smith's third inning grand slam, the Aces beat the MVC co-champions 9-5 for their second victory in two days against Illinois State. Evansville became only the second team in the Valley to win a series from the Redbirds this season. Co-champ Wichita State was the other. Both Illinois State and Wichita finished 15-6 to tie for the MVC title.

Evansville now goes into the eight-team State Farm MVC Tournament in Wichita as the number five seed after finishing the regular season 30-25 overall and 10-11 in league play. The double-elimination tournament begins Tuesday with all eight teams playing one game.

"Winning our 30th game was really big," said UE Coach Wes Carroll. "For our young team to win 30 games in the regular season is very impressive. Our program is headed in the right direction. We have players who have battled back all season, and you saw a great example of that this afternoon."

The Redbirds' attempt to win the Valley title outright started well enough, with three runs off Evansville starter Josh Biggs and one off reliever Corey Davisson in the first three innings. But junior Nate Smith changed the complexion of Senior Day with one swing in the third. Evansville had already scored one run on Cody Fick's sacrifice fly when Smith stepped up with two out and the bases loaded. Smith got ahead in the count 3-0 against Illinois State pitcher J.D. Learnard, and after Learnard battled back to fill the count, Smith lined his grand slam just to the right of the 400 sign in center field to put the Aces up 5-4. It was Smith's sixth home run of the year.

Davisson, one of six seniors to play their final home game Saturday, pretty much did the rest. He pitched five full innings in relief, scattering six hits, allowing only two runs and striking out four. UE's offense added three runs on just one basehit in the fourth to make it 8-4, and another in the sixth on Fick's second sacrifice fly of the game. Six of UE's runs came from batters who either walked (4) or were hit by a pitch (2).

Senior Tom Heithoff wrapped up the game over the final two innings, allowing a hit to the first batter he faced and then setting down six straight to give the Aces their 30th victory and assure them of a number five seed in next week's tournament.