Southern Illinois University
11-16, 3-3
Creighton
11-14, 5-1
Baseball blanked by Creighton, 10-0
03/29/2009 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
March 29, 2009
By Jeff Honza
www.SIUSalukis.com
OMAHA, Neb. - Righthander Jonas Dufek threw a complete game shutout, as Creighton University (11-14, 5-1) beat Southern Illinois (11-16, 3-3), 10-0, earlier today at the CU Sports Complex.
Sunday's series finale was shortened to seven innings by way of the Missouri Valley Conference's run-rule.
CU swept SIU in a series for the first time since 1999. The Bluejays have now won eight of their last 10 games against the Dawgs.
Dufek allowed only three hits, struck out four and walked one in his masterpiece. Only three Salukis reached base against him with none making it past first base. Dufek also retired SIU in order in each of the second, sixth and seventh innings, sitting down 12 of his last 13 hitters.
While Dufek was cruising on the mound, CU's offense wasted no time going to work against starting righthander Andrew Dunn.
The Bluejays batted around to score five runs on five hits in the bottom of the second inning. Jimmy Swift led things off with a solo home run to right. Carson Vitale and Nick Becker added back-to-back one-out singles before Robbie Knight reached on a fielder's choice and Elliott Soto reached on a base hit. Darin Ruf got on thanks to Michael Stalter's ensuing error and Knight scored. Vicente Cafaro then scorched a two-RBI triple down the right field line to give CU a 5-0 lead.
CU added another run in the third, before sending everyone home with four more runs in the seventh.
T.J. Roemmich homered to right. Swift followed with a single and Dike and Vitale each walked to load the bases with no outs. Consecutive one-out hits by Knight and Soto plated the final three runs in the game to polish off CU's 10-0 win.
Dufek improved to 2-4 on the year.
Dunn (4-3) gave up eight hits and six runs in three innings. He recorded two strikeouts and walked two.
SIU registered only three hits on the day, with Chris Murphy, Stalter and Tony Lepore chipping in one apiece.
Soto, Swift, Vitale and Becker had two hits each, as CU ended up with 12 on the day.
CU's starting pitchers entered the weekend with a 6.00 ERA. SIU managed only four earned runs in three games against the Jays.
SIU returns home to host Murray State on Tuesday at 3 p.m., CT.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Dufek, Jonas (2-4)
L: Dunn, Andrew (4-3)
Batting:
3B: Cafaro, Vicente 1
HR: Roemmich, T.J. 1 ; Swift, Jimmy 1
RBI: Knight, Robbie 3 ; Soto, Elliot 2 ; Cafaro, Vicente 2 ; Roemmich, T.J. 1 ; Swift, Jimmy 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Knight, Robbie 1 ; Soto, Elliot 1 ; Ruf, Darin 1 ; Roemmich, T.J. 1 ; Swift, Jimmy 2 ; Dike, Ian 2 ; Vitale, Carson 2
HBP: Ruf, Darin 1
