Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
Eastern Michigan
Baseball Sweeps Eastern Michigan 5-3 & 17-8
03/10/2002 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
March 10, 2002
Carbondale, Ill. - Southern Illinois University (9-2) swept a doubleheader from Eastern Michigan (3-8) by 5-3 and 17-9 scores on Sunday at Abe Martin Field. The two wins makes it seven consecutive victories for SIU.
"It was a couple nice wins. Jerel Deitering was good again in game one. Luke Nelson didn't have his best game today in the second game, but when they scored we countered and came back to win. We scored in six of eight innings in game two," said Dan Callahan, Saluki head coach.
Jerel Deitering (3-0) picked up his third win in game one by going the full seven innings. He struck out seven, walked two and allowed three earned runs.
Southern Illinois took a 2-0 lead in the first on Jeff Stanek's second home run of the year, a two-run shot to centerfield. The Salukis added two runs in the third inning on Toby Barnett's RBI double and Greg Andrews RBI single to take a 4-0 lead.
Eastern Michigan scored a run in the fifth and SIU came right back with a run in the bottom of the inning on a Stanek RBI single to go up 5-1. The Eagles added two runs in the sixth for the final 5-3 score. EMU's Tom Gallus (0-2) suffered the loss.
Stanek (2-for-3, 3 RBI, run), Nelson (2-for-3, 2 runs) and Andrews (2-for-3, RBI) led SIU in game one.
In game two, SIU came back from an 8-7 deficit going into the bottom of the fifth inning and outscored EMU 10-0 the final four innings to win the game 17-8.
EMU scored four early runs off Nelson to take a 4-0 lead. SIU scored five runs in the bottom of the second to take the lead and added single runs in the third and fourth to go up 7-4. In the second, P.J. Finigan scored an unearned run, Ross Kowzan tripled in two runs, Barnett drove in a run on a fielder's choice and Andrews' sacrifice fly capped off the five-run second. Kowzan added an RBI single in the third and Justin Maurath's RBI groundout in the fourth gave SIU a 7-4 lead.
"Kowzan has really come in and helped us after Maurath got hurt and now we can't get him out of the lineup since he's hitting so well (.543 BA). We knew he could help us and he's playing very well," added Callahan.
In the fifth, Eastern Michigan scored four more runs off Nelson with five hits to take their final lead at 8-7. The Salukis responded with six runs in the fifth on Kowzan's RBI single, Andrews fielder's choice, Frisella's 2 RBI double and Finigan's 2 RBI single to take the lead for good. SIU added three runs in the sixth on RBI doubles by Kowzan, Stanek and Frisella and scored the final run in the eighth on Barnett's first home run of the year for the final 17-8 margin.
Eric Haberer (1-0) pitched two and a third innings to pick up his first college win. He struck out three, walked one and only allowed one hit.
Eastern Michigan's Wil Stewardson (0-2) allowing three runs in two thirds of an inning to get the loss.
Kowzan (4-for-4, 5 RBI, 3 runs), Frisella (4-for-6, 3 RBI, 2 runs) and Finigan (3-for-4, 2 RBI, 2 runs) led the 16-hit Saluki attack in game two.
SIU travels to San Antonio, Texas next week for Notre Dame's Irish Classic on March 13-16. SIU will play single games on Wednesday (Arkansas-Little Rock), Thursday (Notre Dame), Friday (Creighton) and Saturday (TBA).
