Baseball falls to No. 5 Wichita State, 8-3

Sunday, April 20

Wichita, Kan.

1:00 P.M.

Southern Illinois University

20-17, 4-8

Wichita St.

30-7, 9-3

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Southern Illinois	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	3	5	0
Wichita State	0	0	3	2	0	3	0	0	X	8	12	1

04/20/2008 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

April 20, 2008

Box Score

By Jeff Honza
www.SIUSalukis.com

WICHITA, Kan. - Junior lefthander Anthony Capra struck out nine and gave up four hits in a sparkling 7.2 innings to lead No. 5 Wichita State (30-7, 9-3) to a 8-3 win over Southern Illinois (20-17, 4-8) earlier today at Eck Stadium.

WSU clinched its 13th Missouri Valley Conference series win in a row, as the Shockers picked up their 30th win of the season.

Capra never gave SIU a chance, retiring 15-straight hitters from the third to eighth innings. He forced Saluki hitters into 11 groundball outs and sat the Dawgs down in order in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh.

SIU, on the other hand, received a decent outing from righthander Andrew Dunn, who took the mound for his second conference start after David Kington was removed from the rotation.

Dunn tossed two scoreless innings and pitched with a 1-0 lead after Bret Maugeri launched a solo home run to lead off the second. Maugeri, who collected his fifth homer of the season, became the first to hit a home run in league play off Shocker Capra this year.

But, everything slipped away from the Dawgs quickly in the third.

WSU had runners on second and third with one out when Dunn pulled ahead of Conor Gillaspie in the count (1-2). Dunn later caught Gillaspie looking at a knee-high pitch right over the middle of the plate. However, the pitch was called a ball and Gillaspie went on to deliver a two-RBI single. Saluki head coach Dan Callahan was then ejected after protesting the call. A two-out base hit by Dusty Coleman came after that, and the Shockers took a 3-1 lead.

SIU held WSU scoreless for 15 consecutive innings prior to Gillaspie's run-scoring single in the third.

The wild third inning zapped the momentum out of SIU, which never recovered.

Meanwhile, WSU continued to pour it on, using two-out rallies to push across two more runs in the fourth and another three in the sixth.

Three-straight two-out hits, including a RBI-double by Gillaspie and run-scoring single by Bret Bascue plated both runs in the fourth.

Two innings later, the Shockers stole four bases and took advantage of RBI-hits by Coleman and Bascue to up their lead to 8-1 in the sixth.

SIU made a late push with two outs in the eighth inning when it capitalized on an error to score a pair of unearned runs. Chris Murphy reached on Coleman's throwing mishap. Scott Elmendorf followed with a single and Murphy went to third. Mark Kelly singled on the next play and Murphy scored. Elmendorf scored easily on an ensuing wild pitch to cut WSU's lead to 8-3.

The Salukis had a golden opportunity to do even more damage in the eighth, but left the bases loaded after Dean Cademartori struck out.

Dunn (2-5) suffered his team-high fifth loss of the season. He gave up six hits and four runs in only three innings. Dunn also struck out three and walked one.

Capra remained undefeated at 7-0 on the year.

Offensively, WSU registered 12 hits on the day. Williams, Jr. and Coleman each had a game-high three hits, while Gillaspie followed with two. Gillaspie (3) and Coleman (2) also teamed up for five runs batted in.

On the series, WSU stole a near-perfect 16-of-17 bases.

SIU struck out a total of 30 times against the Shockers, 24 of which came in the last two games of the series. Three and four-hole hitters Adam Hills and Kelly went a combined 2-for-17 at the plate on the weekend.

The Salukis, who wrap up the first half of conference play at 4-8, return to action Wednesday against nationally-ranked Missouri in a wood bat game in O'Fallon, Mo.