Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Baseball Travels To New Orleans Tournament
02/20/2002 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
Feb. 20, 2002
Carbondale, Ill. - Southern Illinois University (2-1) will continue the 2002 season at the University of New Orleans Maestri Tournament on February 22-24 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Salukis will face their toughest competition of the year against New Orleans (2-1) and Missouri (3-1) (both received votes in the Baseball Weekly ESPN/ABCA Coaches Poll), as well as nationally-ranked Notre Dame (0-0) (ranked #4 by Baseball America, #9 by Baseball Weekly ESPN/ABCA Coaches Poll and #19 by Collegiate Baseball).
"I'm excited. It's a good test and a fun tournament to be a part of but we don't want to lose sight of what we're here to do. We want to win the tournament. After the way we played last weekend (vs Louisiana-Monroe) I don't see why we need to take a back seat to anyone. The competition will be formidable but we plan to win the tournament," said Dan Callahan, Saluki head baseball coach.
"Notre Dame was ranked #1 in the nation last year, New Orleans has a strong tradition and Missouri is a good Big-12 team. We played well 25 of 27 innings last week and want to keep that up."
The Salukis received strong performances from five players who hit .400 or better last weekend, led by junior college transfer leftfielder Ross Kowzan (.545 BA, HR, 5 RBI) and freshman shortstop P.J. Finigan (.500 BA, 4 RBI).
"Those are two pretty good efforts right out of the shoot. Kowzan wasn't slated to start in leftfield until Maurath was hurt he took advantage of the opportunity and played well. Finigan showed us this fall that he could do the job and during the weekend he proved he was the guy at shortstop. I was happy for both guys and our new catcher Toby Barnett (.400 BA, 3 RBI). They contributed significantly," added Callahan.
Three freshmen finished games for SIU last week and Callahan expects the fresh faces to do the same this weekend, but likely under more difficult circumstances.
"They're going to have to throw somewhere along the line. We won't have three great starts all the time. The freshmen as well as Bill Clayton, Jason Westemeir and Josh Joiner will have to contribute," added Callahan.
Jake Alley (1-0, 1.13 ERA, 5 K's), Jerel Deitering (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 11 K's) and Luke Nelson (0-0, 3.52 ERA, 4 K's) will start for the Salukis this weekend and are off to strong starts in 2002.
SIU veterans Jeff Stanek (.462 BA, HR, 2 RBI) and Sal Frisella (.417 BA, HR, 2 RBI) are also hitting well for the Salukis.
SIU will face New Orleans on Friday (6:30 p.m.), Missouri on Saturday (5 p.m.) and Notre Dame on Sunday (9:30 a.m.) at Privateer Park in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Missouri (www.mutigers.com) and Notre Dame (www.und.com) games can be heard on the web sites listed above.
