Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Softball Travels To Evansville For MVC Doubleheader Wednesday
04/15/2003 | 12:00:00 | Softball
April 15, 2003
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Carbondale, Ill. - Southern Illinois (28-6, 12-3 MVC) will travel to Evansville (21-15, 9-7 MVC) for a Missouri Valley Conference doubleheader at 5 p.m. on Wednesday against the fourth place Purple Aces. The second place Salukis beat Evansville 8-0 in five innings last Wednesday in Carbondale, but SIU head coach Kerri Blaylock expects much tougher games despite the easy 8-0 win.
"Evansville is much better than that game last week. We played extremely well and they didn't play very well. We're in the toughest part of our schedule and we just need to grind it out. I hope we can go over there and play well and see what happens. We just have to be consistent," added Blaylock.
"I want to get the first game Wednesday night and then worry about the second game later. It would be huge if we can win both games and sweep the team that was picked to finish second. They won the MVC tournament last year. It was so hard to sweep SMS and all the teams in the MVC are good teams. We want to keep up with Illinois State (14-2 MVC) and they swept Evansville this year."
SIU leads the series with Evansville 36-13 and has a 4-4 record against the Aces under Blaylock. The Salukis have won six straight, hitting .326 (46-for-141) with eight doubles, two triples and eight home runs. Southern Illinois outscored opponents 35-7 during the streak. The dawgs have won 20 of their last 23 games, including a sweep of SMS last weekend in Carbondale. Evansville has won three straight, sweeping Bradley last weekend.
