Southern Illinois University
Murray St.
Murray State Squeaks Past SIU 4-3
02/28/2001 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
February 28, 2001
Murray, Ky. - Southern Illinois University Carbondale (4-6) overcame an early 3-0 deficit, only to lose 4-3 in ten innings to Murray State University (8-2) at Reagan Field on Wednesday, February 28.
"I'm a little disappointed that after the 0-4 start, we win four of five the last two weekends then lose a game where our opponent made four errors and balked in a crucial situation. But they had 11 hits and back-to-back doubles in the tenth to win the game. That loss hurts, I felt like we should have won it," said Dan Callahan, Saluki head coach.
The Thoroughbreds jumped out to a 3-0 lead after three innings before the Salukis battled back with an unearned run in the sixth inning, and two runs in the eighth to tie the game at three.
Down 3-1 in the eighth, Cory Newman scored on a wild pitch and Scott Hankey followed with an RBI double, driving in Luke Nelson, who reached on an earlier single, to tie the game and force the extra inning.
"That was a big base hit by Hankey in the eighth to get us back in the game. It was a great sac bunt by Jeff Stanek and a good job of small ball to tie the game up. We weren't a very good team offensively today," added Callahan. "We hit some balls hard early that didn't fall and I think some guys got frustrated early. We didn?t have a lot of quality at bats, trying to pull too many pitches and swinging at bad pitches."
After Ryan Aird allowed three runs in three innings, Jerel Deitering (3.1) and Josh Latimer (1.2) pitched five innings of scoreless relief, allowing the Salukis to tie the game in the eighth.
"I thought after falling down 3-0 I felt that Deitering and Latimer did a tremendous job of keeping us in the game, and we didn't allow a run after the third until the tenth. That's a great job if your bullpen can do that," said Callahan.
Billy Hardin (0-4) threw a scoreless ninth, before allowing the winning run on two consecutive doubles with one out in the tenth, to take the loss.
Scott Hankey led the Salukis with a 1-for-4, 2-RBI performance.
Murray State's Rick McCarty (1-0) earned the win with two and two thirds innings of scoreless relief.
SIU will host Western Illinois University in a three game series this weekend, playing a doubleheader on Saturday, March 3, at 12 p.m., and a single game on Sunday, March 4, at 1 p.m. at Abe Martin Field.
