Baseball hangs on to beat Northern Illinois, 5-3

Sunday, March 2

Carbondale, Ill.

1:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

3-4

Northern Illinois

2-3

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Northern Illinois	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	3	11	1
Southern Illinois	1	0	2	0	2	0	0	0	X	5	8	2

03/02/2008 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

March 2, 2008

Box Score

By Jeff Honza
www.SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Mark Kelly and Tyler Bullock each hit two-run homers to lead Southern Illinois University (3-4) to a tight 5-3 win over Northern Illinois (2-3) earlier today in the Salukis' home opener at Abe Martin Field.

SIU improved to 11-3 in home-openers under head coach Dan Callahan.

"We played hard and made the key pitches we needed to win the game," said Callahan. "I was proud of the way we battled back to salvage a win in the series."

Clinging to a 1-0 lead, Kelly launched his first homer of the season over the left field wall in the bottom of the third. Kelly knocked in Adam Hills, who was hit by a pitch with one away.

With a runner on first after Scott Elmendorf led off the fifth with a single, Bullock homered with two outs to extend SIU's lead to 5-0. The home run was Bullock's first as a Saluki.

Those homers proved to be the difference as Southern did not score again.

Meanwhile, NIU suddenly made things interesting, putting up three runs in the sixth.

A one-out, two base error ignited the rally for the Huskies, who batted around. Four of the next five NIU hitters delivered base hits following the miscue, as Bobby Stevens, Justin Behm and Pat Minogue knocked in one run apiece to slice the Salukis' lead to 5-3.

The Huskies continued to threaten, and as a result, had runners on first and second with two outs in the seventh and runners on second and third with one out in the eighth. But, the Saluki bullpen rose to the occasion.

Ian Reinhart got Joe Buonavolanto to fly out to center to end the seventh, before Bryant George recorded a strikeout and flyball out to pitch out of the jam in the eighth.

George struck out two and retired four of five hitters en route to his first save.

David Kington (1-0) picked up his first career win. Kington struck out seven and allowed six hits and three runs in 5.2 innings.

Zach Oates (0-1) suffered the loss for NIU, giving up three hits and three runs in three innings. He also walked three.

Bullock and Owen Mackedon led the Salukis with two hits each.

NIU outhit SIU, 11-8, with Dave Reynolds, Behm and Kamin combining for six of the hits. The Huskies outhit the Salukis all three games of the series.

NIU also left a total of 14 runners on base, half of which were in scoring position.

SIU remains home for its next five games. The Salukis play Middle Tennessee State Tuesday and Wednesday, before hosting Xavier in a three-game series starting Friday.