Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Baseball Heads to SMS This Weekend
04/01/2004 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
April 1, 2004
By Jeff Honza
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois (6-14-1, 2-1-1) is the first visiting team to play at Hammons Field, the new home of Southwest Missouri State (9-12, 1-2). The Salukis and Bears play a four-game series beginning Friday at 7 p.m.
SMS' new stadium, which was built at a cost of 30 million dollars, is the most expensive college baseball park ever constructed. An overflow crowd of better than 8,000 is expected for tomorrow's grand opening.
SIU, who ranks third in the Missouri Valley Conference, has won six of its last eight games.
Junior left-hander Eric Haberer will open the series on the mound for SIU. After serving as one of the Salukis' top closers a year ago, Haberer is currently the ace of SIU's pitching staff.
Holding a 2-0 record with a team-leading 2.49 ERA in seven appearances, including three starts, he recently allowed one run and posted four strikeouts in seven innings in his team's MVC debut against Bradley (3/27).
While Haberer continues to have success on the mound, so does the Saluki offense at the plate.
SIU has registered double-digit hits in nine of its last 13 games. The Saluki offense, which started making noise at the Irish Classic (Mar. 6-9), has since, done serious damage.
In their last 13 games alone, the Salukis have averaged 11.5 hits en route to a total of 149 hits, 97 runs, 82 RBI, 22 doubles, four triples, nine home runs and 45 walks. Not to mention, SIU also increased its average to .275 on the year over that span.
Senior second baseman Greg Andrews and sophomore infielder Nathan Emrick are a huge part of that impressive offensive surge.
A native of Peoria, Ill., Andrews is hitting a second-best .320 with both a team and league-leading seven home runs. Andrews recently took over the ninth-place spot on SIU's all-time career home run list, when he delivered his 22nd career long ball, a walk-off home run against the Braves on Mar. 27. He has accounted for all but six of the Salukis' round-trippers this season.
Emrick, on the other hand, hails from Griggsville, Ill., and leads the Salukis with a .395 batting average. His 11-game hitting streak recently came to an end in game one of Sunday's doubleheader against Bradley.
Prior to Sunday, his 11-game stretch lasted nearly a month (Feb. 29-Mar. 28), where he hit a blistering .468 (22-for-47) with 13 runs, two doubles, four walks and two stolen bases. He also collected three multiple-hit games, including two with three or more hits.
Along with its offense, SIU's defense is getting better as well.
After a rocky start which saw SIU commit a total of 31 errors in its first 11 games, that mark has been cut down considerably over the last 10 outings. Since playing Texas-San Antonio on Mar. 8, the Dawgs' defense has committed just nine errors, while going errorless on two occasions.
Currently occupying the seventh-place spot in the league standings, SMS enters the weekend coming off a 19-2 win over Saint Louis, its final game at Price-Cutter Park.
The Bears, who have lost four of their last seven games, are led by Ryan Gotcher. Gotcher is hitting .348 with 16 runs, three doubles, two triples, one home run and 17 RBI. As a team, SMS is hitting a little better than SIU with a .280 mark.
On the mound, SMS holds a 4.38 ERA which ranks fourth in the Valley.
Along with Wichita State, SMS has given SIU the most trouble of any league opponent. Under head coach Dan Callahan, no Saluki club has ever won a four-game series against the Bears. The only time a Callahan-coached team has come close to that feat was in 1996, where the teams split, 2-2. The Salukis have gone 1-3 in regular-season play against the Bears in six of nine seasons under Callahan, including each of the last four.
SIU trails 38-19 in its all-time series against SMS. SMS won three of four games against SIU a year ago, but the Salukis sent the Bears into the losers' bracket of the MVC Tournament with a 9-4 win in Wichita, Kan. SMS, however, went on to make its first-ever NCAA College World Series appearance.
In addition to Haberer, Jason Chavez (Sat., Game 1), Marshall Tucker (Sat., Game 2) and P.J. Finigan (Sun.) are scheduled to pitch for SIU this weekend.
SIU fans who plan on making the trek to Springfield this weekend are encouraged to arrive to the games early due to the large volume of traffic expected. Gates open two hours before the start of Friday's game (at 5 p.m.) and one hour before the start of all remaining games. Carpooling with family or friends was also suggested in a press release issued by SMS earlier this week.
Friday's series-opener between SIU and SMS will be broadcast live over the internet only at www.siusalukis.com. All other games of the series can be heard at WCIL-1020 AM.
