Baseball Beats Evansville, 6-5, Splits Series

Sunday, April 11

Carbondale, Ill.

1:00 P.M.

Southern Illinois University

9-19-1, 5-6-1

Evansville

16-16, 4-8

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

04/11/2004 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

April 11, 2004

Box Score

By Jeff Honza
www.SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Designated hitter Nick Baughman hit a first-pitch, walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to give Southern Illinois (9-19-1, 5-6-1) a thrilling 6-5 win over Evansville (16-16, 4-8) earlier today in both teams' series finale at Abe Martin Field. The Salukis and Purple Aces split the four-game set.

Baughman's home run, which was one of four SIU long balls on the day, marked his first this season and second of his career. Baughman also became the second Saluki this season to hit a walk-off home run, as Greg Andrews also did it against Bradley on Mar. 27.

Needless to say, there was plenty of drama leading up to Baughman's game-ending smash.

SIU immediately went to work on UE starter Cal Stanke in the top of the first, where P.J. Finigan and Matt Brewer each hit two-run bombs to give the Dawgs an early 4-0 lead. The two round-trippers were part of four hits in the inning. Also, Finigan's marked his first of the season.

With two out, and SIU's eight-hole hitter at the plate, Stanke was then relieved by left-hander Kai Tuomi who would keep the Salukis in check.

Tuomi, who retired eight straight SIU hitters to open his outing, no-hit the Salukis in five of seven frames and did not allow a runner on base. Additionally, only one Saluki reached base, however, that baserunner came courtesy of an error with one out in the fourth.

While Tuomi appeared to be mowing down the Saluki offense, SIU starter Jason Chavez was playing with fire.

Chavez allowed UE's lead off hitter to reach safely five times, but, the Salukis' solid middle infield tandem of Finigan and Andrews turned double plays to help bail him out on three of those occasions.

However, in the sixth, Chavez fell apart. Aided by four walks, a hit batsman and an error, UE scored five runs to take a 5-4 lead, even though it had just one hit.

Kyle Smith led things off with a walk and went to second on an error by Andrews. Cody Strait reached on a fielder's choice and Smith was out at third. Pat Tumilty then walked, before a sacrifice fly by Mike Serafini plated Lis, who initially reached on Andrews' miscue. With two-out, Jeff Fontaine walked and Gabe Bauer was hit by a pitch to score two more runs, and that was the end for Chavez.

Left-hander Adam Snyder, who retired 12 straight UE hitters en route to his first save in game one of the series, replaced Chavez, and gave up a three-RBI triple to the first batter he faced, Robbie Minor. Minor's triple, which found the gap in left center, scored Tumilty, Fontaine and Bauer to give the Aces a one-run advantage.

The Purple Aces' slight lead didn't last for long, as Brewer answered with his second home run of the game, a two-out game-tying solo blast to right. The round-tripper also marked the third of his career.

Deadlocked at 5-5, Snyder shook off Minor's sixth-inning triple with flair in the seventh and eigth innings, where he struck out four of his last eight batters, before Andrew Weber took the hill.

Weber calmly struck out Eric Jones and Lis en route to sitting down the Aces in order, as SIU entered their final at-bat in the ninth.

Baughman took Adam Rogers' first delivery deep over the right field wall, and just like that, the Dawgs stormed the field to celebrate a 6-5 Easter Sunday win. Prior to facing Baughman, Rogers helped get the Aces out of a two-out, two baserunner jam in the eighth. Rogers fell to 2-4 on the year, while Weber pushed his record to 3-1.

Offensively, the Salukis had seven hits, including four home runs. Today marked the second time this season, where SIU hit four home runs in a game after last hitting four round-trippers at Vanderbilt on Feb. 20.

Brewer and Baughman each went 2-for-4 with a home run to lead the Dawgs. Brewer also had three RBI and two runs scored, while Baughman registered one run scored and one RBI.

SIU returns to mid-week action on Wednesday, April 14 when it hosts Murray State at 3 p.m.