Southern Illinois University
26-15
Southeast Missouri
16-23
Baseball Downs SE Missouri State, 7-3
04/27/2005 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
April 27, 2005
By Jeff Honza
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Freshman Dean Cademartori's three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the fifth opened up a five-run lead, as Southern Illinois (26-15) later beat Southeast Missouri State (16-23), 7-3, earlier today in non-conference action at Abe Martin Field.
SIU, who avenged a loss to SEMO by the exact same score earlier in the year, posted its second win in a row, and sixth in its last seven games. The win also marked the Salukis' fifth-straight against an Ohio Valley Conference opponent.
Clinging to a 4-2 lead after four and a half innings, Cademartori went yard for his second homer of the season to give the Dawgs a five-run (7-2) cushion.
Nathan Emrick reached on a single and went to second on a wild pitch, while Chris McCulloch walked prior to Cademartori's bomb which sailed over the wall just to the right of the 390-feet mark in center.
With no Saluki hitting over .211 in the cleanup spot after the loss of Grant Gerrard, McCulloch knocked in three of SIU's first four runs on a pair of doubles, as the Salukis took a 4-1 lead.
Despite leaving two runners on, SEMO narrowed the gap to, 4-2, when Chris Gibson delivered a RBI-single in the fourth.
Then, Cademartori's smash blew the game open.
SEMO, who left 10 runners on base, struggled to capitalize on its chances. Namely, in the sixth, where Levi Olson homered, and both Freddy Lopez and Gibson each singled to load the bases with no outs against Saluki reliever Shane Garner.
The Redhawks trailed, 7-3, after the three first-pitch hits off Garner, but Ryan Welch recorded three straight outs, including a pair of strikeouts to get SIU out of the jam.
Freshman starter Ryan Terry (7) and Garner (3) may have given up a combined 10 hits in five innings, but after that, Welch, Mark Obszanski and Jason Chavez teamed up to no-hit SEMO in four shutout innings, and cap a solid showing by the Saluki pen.
Terry, who improved to 3-0, also struck out four and walked two.
Meanwhile, freshman Casey Johnson (1-4) took the fall for the Redhawks. Johnson, who threw 14 balls in his first 16 pitches of the game, struggled to eight hits, seven runs, and four walks in 4.2 innings. He also struck out two.
SIU pounded out 11 hits on the day, and was led by P.J. Finigan and McCulloch.
Finigan, who extended his hitting streak to nine games, went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored, while McCulloch went 2-for-2 with a pair of doubles, two runs scored and three RBI.
Emrick also had two hits, while Kevin Koski, Cademartori, Matt Brewer and Brendan Lutz followed with one each. Koski's hit upped his hitting streak to 17 games.
Frank Montiel, Gibson and Lopez had two hits apiece to top the Redhawks.
SIU looks to keep its winning streak alive this weekend when it visits Indiana State for a three-game series, beginning Friday at 7 p.m.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Terry, Ryan (3-0)
L: JOHNSON, Casey (1-4)
Batting:
2B: MONTIEL, Frank 1
HR: CLAYTON, James 1 ; OLSON, Levi 1
RBI: CLAYTON, James 1 ; OLSON, Levi 1 ; GIBSON, Chris 1
Base Running:
RUNS: MONTIEL, Frank 1 ; CLAYTON, James 1 ; OLSON, Levi 1
SB: MONTIEL, Frank 1
HBP: MONTIEL, Frank 1
Batting:
2B: Finigan, P.J. 1 ; McCulloch, Chris 2
HR: Cademartori, Dean 1
RBI: McCulloch, Chris 3 ; Cademartori, Dean 3 ; Lairson, Tyler 1
SF: Lairson, Tyler 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Finigan, P.J. 2 ; Emrick, Nathan 2 ; McCulloch, Chris 1 ; Cademartori, Dean 1 ; Alvarez, Erik 1
CS: Lutz, Brendan 1
