"It's been a long day," said Stephenson. "We were up before 7:00 am, and I didn't sleep all night. I had a lot of things on my mind, and none of them were good."

However, those thoughts vanished with today's game.

"I thought we played really well today," Stephenson said. "We pitched well, and we got some timely hitting. We really hit the ball hard, but we had bad breaks at times. Andy (Dirks) hit one that I still can't figure out how the right fielder (SIU's Aaron Roberts) caught that. Hopefully the breaks start going our way."

As for the players, they were just glad to get back on the field and redeem themselves, following last night's stunning loss to Missouri State.

"We just wanted to get back on the field," said Dirks. "We were excited to be playing today."

So the Shocks will advance to play tomorrow. Who or when, we're not sure yet. Missouri State and Evansville will have a lot to say about that, and they're warming up as we speak. Already, fans are lined up outside, many decked in MSU maroon, hoping to see their Bears pull another upset tonight.