Baseball blanked by Missouri State, 5-0

Sunday, March 30

Springfield, Mo.

1:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

13-10, 3-3

Missouri State

17-7, 4-2

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Southern Illinois	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0
Missouri State	0	0	3	0	0	2	0	0	X	5	10	1

03/30/2008 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

March 30, 2008

Box Score

By Jeff Honza
www.SIUSalukis.com

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - True freshman lefthander Aaron Meade allowed only four hits and struck out seven in 7.2 scoreless innings to lead Missouri State University (17-7, 4-2) to a 5-0 win over Southern Illinois (13-10, 3-3) earlier today at Hammons Field.

MSU clinched its second-straight Missouri Valley Conference series win this season.

SIU struggled to get anything going against Meade, who did a nice job of mixing his pitches to keep the Salukis off balance.

Only five Salukis reached base against Meade, including two in the third and two in the eighth. Meade, at one time, retired 14 Saluki hitters in a row, allowing only three balls to leave the infield during that span.

With Meade mowing down SIU on the mound, the Bears roared to a 3-0 lead with one out in the third.

Chris Playter singled and went to second when Ben Woodbury was hit by a pitch. Nolan Keane, after pulling ahead, 3-1 in the count against Saluki starting righthander David Kington, smashed a home run to right center.

MSU added two more when Kington gave up another homer in the sixth. Christian Overstreet led off with a single and stole second. Playter then launched a two-out bomb over the left field wall to give the Bears a 5-0 lead.

The best scoring chance for SIU came in the ninth when it loaded the bases with two outs against MSU reliever Pat Doyle. Doyle, however, nailed down the shutout when he got Tyler Lairson to fly out to center.

Meade improved to 4-1 on the year.

Kington (1-1) suffered his first loss after giving up nine hits and five runs in six innings. Kington also hit two batters, struck out five and walked two.

Mark Kelly had two hits to lead SIU, which was outhit, 10-6 on the day. Bret Maugeri extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a single in his final at-bat in the ninth. Maugeri's 10-game stretch is the longest by any Saluki this season. SIU also struck out a total of 28 times on the series.

Playter and Keane led the Salukis with two hits each. The first three hitters in MSU's lineup, consisting of Playter, Ben Woodbury and Keane combined for five hits, four runs and five RBI on the day.

SIU returns to action when it plays Illinois Tuesday. First pitch is set for 6 p.m., CST, at Rent One Park in Marion.