Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
Murray St.
Baseball Hammers Murray State 15-5
04/23/2002 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
April 23, 2002
Carbondale, Ill. - DuQuoin's Ross Kowzan had a career-high five hits and drove in two runs as Southern Illinois University (23-15, 10-10 MVC) crushed Murray State University (14-20, 9-9 OVC) 15-5 in a non-conference game at Reagan Field on Tuesday.
"I think the guys were serious about this midweek game and played with some intensity. In the past we've taken some midweek opponents lightly but we didn't do that today and had great results. We had some great individual performances and it was a good win," said Dan Callahan, Saluki head coach.
Southern Illinois had a season-high 19 hits, including at least one for every starter. Kowzan's five hits pushed his team-leading average up to .421 and tied him with Toby Barnett with 53 hits.
"Every starter had a hit which is rare. Ross (Kowzan), Toby (Barnett), Sal (Frisella) and Greg (Andrews) really swang the bats well today. Hopefully this will carry over to the Northern Iowa series and we can get seven, eight or nine guys swinging the bats well at the same time. If that happens I like our chances this weekend."
SIU wasted little time getting after Murray State. Six Salukis reached base in the first inning and Jeff Stanek and Barnett drove in runs for a 2-0 lead. MSU tied the game 2-2 in the second inning, before Kowzan gave SIU the lead for good when he doubled in Barnett for a 3-2 lead after three frames.
With the game still 3-2 after five innings, SIU outscored Murray State 12-3 in the final four innings to make it a rout. SIU had innings of one, four, four and three runs scored the final four frames.
Cory Newman's sacrifice fly made it 4-2 after six innings. Then the Salukis exploded for four runs on five hits in the seventh on an RBI single by Justin Maurath, a two-RBI triple by Frisella and an RBI double by Ryan Murray for an 8-2 lead.
Murray State battled back in their half of the seventh with three runs on two hits and two SIU errors to cut the Saluki lead to 8-5, but Southern put four more runs up in the top of the eighth inning on three hits, a wild pitch and a two base error for a 12-5 advantage. SIU sent nine men to the plate in the ninth inning, scoring three more runs on two hits and an error for the final 15-5 margin.
Bill Clayton (2-1) went five innings and allowed one hit for the second straight week to pick up his second straight win. He struck out three, walked two, allowed two earned runs and hit four batters.
"It was good to see Bill (Clayton) pick up another win. I would like to see him have better command, but at times he was dominant and threw some good pitches," added Callahan.
Kowzan (5-for-6, 2 doubles, 2 RBI, 2 runs), Frisella (3-for-4, 3 RBI, 3 runs, triple), Andrews (2-for-3, run), Barnett (2-for-4, 2 RBI, two runs), Stanek (2-for-4, RBI, 2 runs) and Murray (2-for-5, RBI) led the season-high 19-hit parade for the Salukis.
SIU will travel to Waterloo, Iowa for an MVC series with Northern Iowa on April 26-28.
