Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
Louisiana Monroe
Baseball Beats Louisiana-Monroe 8-1 To Win Opener
02/15/2002 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
Feb. 15, 2002
Monroe, La. - Junior Jake Alley (1-0) threw eight innings of one-run, nine-hit ball to lead Southern Illinois University to an 8-1 win over Louisiana-Monroe in its season-opener on Friday at Indian Field. The season-opening win is the first for SIU since 1989 (beat Farleigh Dickinson 13-8).
"I'm elated to get our first opening-game win since 1989. We hope that's a sign of things to come. I was very impressed with all phases of the game. We played pretty good defense, swung the bats very well and Jake Alley pitched well until we could open the game up offensively," said Dan Callahan, Saluki head coach.
"We did a good job to start the season and all the work outdoors in the fall and early this season really helped us."
SIU jumped out to a 2-0 in the top of the first when Jeff Stanek tripled to score Luke Nelson and Toby Barnett's sacrifice fly scored Stanek. Louisiana-Monroe cut the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the first, but Alley allowed just seven hits and no runs the next seven innings. He finished with five strikeouts and two walks in his first outing since 2000.
"I thought Jake might be so pumped up that he would overthrow, but he did a great job of not overthrowing and competed well. He and Ty Neal (pitching coach) worked really hard to get ready for this start," added Callahan.
Up 2-1 in the second, the Salukis added a run when Ross Kowzan doubled to score Sal Frisella, who had singled and stole a base. SIU added single runs in the fourth on Greg Andrews solo home run, an RBI triple by Luke Nelson in the fifth and in the seventh on Toby Barnett's second sacrifice fly to take a 6-1 lead after seven innings. Freshman P.J. Finigan's first college hit, a two-run RBI single in the eighth inning closed the scoring.
Frisella (2-for-4, 2 runs), Kowzan (2-for-4, RBI, run), Nelson (2-for-5, RBI, run) and Barnett (1-for-3 (2 RBI's) led the Saluki offense. Freshman Eric Haberer pitched the ninth inning to wrap the win for the Salukis.
ULM starter Brian Shoup (0-1) allowed five runs in five innings to get the loss.
SIU will continue their series with the Indians on Saturday (2 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.) at Indian Field in Monroe, Louisiana.
