Baseball Falls to Northern Illinois, 7-3

Saturday, February 28

Carbondale, Ill.

1:00 P.M.

Southern Illinois University

0-8

Northern Illinois

3-2

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Northern Illinois	0	0	0	0	4	0	3	0	0	7	9	1
Southern Illinois	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	3	6	3

02/28/2004 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

Feb. 28, 2004

Box Score

By Jeff Honza
www.SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill.- Northern Illinois (3-2) capitalized on a pair of errors to score four runs in the top of the fifth en route to posting a 7-3 win over Southern Illinois (0-8) earlier today at Abe Martin Field.

It was a solid pitching duel early on between left-handers Bryan Rueger and Zach Minor who each threw four scoreless innings to open the game.

Rueger nearly matched his career-high of six strikeouts with five Ks in the first four frames, while Minor retired 12 of 14 hitters between the second and fifth innings.

Rueger, however, would self-destruct in the sixth, where he gave up back-to-back singles to Greg Larson and Mike Kukla. A sacrifice-bunt by Eric Sansouci followed to advance the runners. Shortly after that, Rueger threw a wild pitch that enabled Larson to score and Kukla to go to third.

With one out and runners on the corners after a Josh Owens walk, Rueger tried to pick off Owens at first, but his wild throw rolled all the way to the fence along the first-base side. In the meantime, Kukla scored and Owens ended up on third

Still with one out, NIU lead off man Mike Brown reached base when Josh Markle dropped a pop-up at first. With runners on the corners again, Jeremy Busch drove home Owens on an infield single. Brown would then steal third and score on a sacrifice fly by Rob Marconi to give the Huskies a 4-0 lead.

SIU came alive in the bottom of the sixth, where Nathan Emrick drew a one-out walk and advanced to second on a single by Greg Andrews. Grant Gerrard followed with a single to score Emrick and push Andrews to second.

Moments later, Erik Alvarez delivered a pinch-hit single to drive in Andrews. Gerrard, who also went to third on the hit, would then score on a passed ball to bring the Dawgs to within one, 4-3.

The Salukis' lead didn't stand for long, as NIU answered with three more runs in the top of the seventh. A RBI-single by Scott Simon and a two-RBI double by Mike Hochhauser accounted for the final runs in the 7-3 win.

Following the Huskie seventh, relief pitcher Matt Steiger sat SIU down in order in both the eighth and ninth innings to make the win even better for NIU.

Minor allowed six hits, gave up two walks and struck out three batters in seven innings to move to 2-0 on the year.

Rueger, who fell to 0-2, gave up four hits and four runs in 4.1 innings. He also walked three and struck out five. Left-handers Tyler Norrick (1) and Eric Haberer (2) accounted for the other three NIU runs. Additionally, Haberer posted a career-high five strikeouts in three innings.

Offensively, Kevin Koski, P.J. Finigan, Andrews, Gerrard, Nathan Boldt and Alvarez had one hit apiece to lead the Dawgs.

NIU was led by Marconi and Hochhauser who each had two hits, including a double.

SIU concludes its three-game series with NIU tomorrow at noon.