Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
Northern Iowa
Baseball Splits Doubleheader Against Northern Iowa
04/27/2002 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
April 26, 2002
Waterloo, Iowa - Southern Illinois University (24-16, 11-11 MVC) scored five runs with two outs in its final at bat to tie the game and went on to beat the University of Northern Iowa (19-19, 7-15 MVC) 9-7 in extra innings in game two of a doubleheader at Waterloo Riverfront Stadium. The doubleheader was scheduled on Friday due to expected rain all day Saturday.
"That's one of the most incredible comebacks I've ever been a part of. That's not something that happens everyday. It was remarkable. We were one out away with nobody on from being 0-2 this weekend and we end up 1-1. That was a huge win and I hope that gives us a jump start," said Dan Callahan, Saluki head coach.
"We didn't play well defensively today with seven errors and we've gotten away from the things that made us the top defensive team in the MVC. We have to get back to playing good defense. Ryan Welch did a good job keeping us in the game despite our errors."
Trailing 7-2 in the top of the seventh, SIU rallied for five runs with two outs to tie the game and force extra innings. Scott Hankey pinch hit for Ross Kowzan and started the rally with a single. Jeff Stanek flied to leftfield but UNI's Adam Boeve made an error allowing both runners to advance two bases. Toby Barnett walked to load the bases and Northern Iowa pulled starter Scott Miller for reliever Chad Vieth.
Vieth walked Justin Maurath to bring in a run and Sal Frisella followed with a base-clearing double to cut the lead to 7-6. UNI's Victor Saldana came in to face P.J. Finigan, who singled in Frisella to tie the game. In the eighth inning with two outs and Hankey and Stanek on base, Barnett singled to center scoring Hankey and Stanek followed after a throwing error by UNI's Willie Jones giving SIU a 9-7 lead.
Eric Haberer (3-0) pitched the seventh and eighth innings without allowing a hit or run to pick up the win. Welch pitched six innings, allowing seven hits, four earned runs, seven runs, two walks and struck out one in the no decision.
Cory Newman (3-for-3, 2 runs), Hankey (2-for-2, 2 runs), Barnett (2-for-4, run, game-winning RBI) and Nick Baughman (1-for-2) led SIU in the game two win.
In game one, Maurath hit his third home run in the second inning to take a 1-0 lead, but UNI responded with four runs in the second inning and never trailed again on their way to a 6-3 win. SIU cut the lead to 4-3 on consecutive sacrifice flies by Kowzan and Frisella, but couldn't get any closer. UNI added two runs in the eighth inning for the final 6-3 margin.
Jake Alley (5-3) struck out eight and walked three, while allowing just one earned run and four total runs on seven hits to suffer the loss. UNI's Josh Habel (4-3) struck out eight and walked one to pick up the win.
Greg Andrews (2-for-4), Maurath (1-for-3, RBI, run) and Frisella (1-for-3, RBI) led the Salukis.
SIU will attempt to play game three of the series on Saturday at 3 p.m. If the weather doesn't allow the seven inning game on Saturday, the teams will conclude the series with a Sunday doubleheader of seven and nine inning games scheduled to start at 11 a.m.
