Southern Illinois University
Evansville
Baseball beats Evansville, 11-5, sweeps Aces
05/16/2009 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
May 16, 2009
By Jeff Honza
www.SIUSalukis.com
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Mark Kelly went 4-for-5 with two runs scored and three RBI to lead Southern Illinois University (23-26, 11-9) to an 11-5 win over Evansville (25-30, 7-17) Saturday at Braun Stadium.
SIU, which went 8-1 through its second half of Missouri Valley Conference play, swept UE for the second year in a row. The Salukis earned series sweeps against the Purple Aces in consecutive years for the first time under head coach Dan Callahan and first time since the 1993 and 1994 seasons.
SIU trailed UE until the ninth inning of Thursday's game, but after that, never fell behind the Aces again. As a result, the Salukis had their best offensive series in Valley play this year, scoring 27 runs on 39 hits against UE.
The Salukis scored multiple times in four innings to bury the Purple Aces today.
Three extra-base hits, including a leadoff double by Tony Lepore, triple by Scott Elmendorf and double by Kelly led to a 3-0 lead for SIU in the top of the third inning.
SIU added two more runs in the fourth when Lepore knocked in Tom Cerven on a one-out single to center. Lepore later touched home on Kelly's two-out base hit to right, pushing SIU's lead to 5-0.
UE quickly pulled to within a run after scoring twice in each of the third and fourth innings, but that was as close as the Purple Aces would get.
SIU tacked on three unearned runs courtesy of a two-base error by UE third baseman Cody Fick in the sixth. Jordan Sivertsen reached on a fielder's choice and came around to score with the help of a Cerven single, fly out by Chris Murphy and wild pitch in the seventh. Tyler Bullock's two-out single then plated both Elmendorf and Kelly to give SIU an 11-5 lead in the eighth.
Right-hander Andrew Dunn (7-4) picked up his third-straight win after giving up eight hits and five runs in seven innings. Dunn also recorded a career-high five strikeouts. He won in three-consecutive starts for the first time in his SIU career.
Right-hander Keegan Dennis (2-5) suffered the loss for UE. Dennis worked 5.1 innings, allowing 11 hits and seven runs. He walked two and struck out one, as well.
Offensively, SIU registered 16 hits, with six Salukis contributing two or more. Kelly paved the way with four hits, while Cerven matched his career-high of three. Lepore, Elmendorf, Michael Stalter and Bullock rounded out that group with two hits apiece. SIU collected 10 of its hits in the first 3.1 innings of the game.
Trentt Copeland went 3-for-4 with a run scored and one RBI to lead UE which finished with nine hits.
SIU will know more about its MVC Tournament seed later tonight. The Salukis will either face Creighton or Wichita State in the first round and will head to Wichita, Kan., as a four or five seed depending on the outcome of today's games.
SIU and UE wrapped up their 2009 regular-seasons. The Purple Aces were the only team in the Valley to play all 24 league games this year.
