Baseball falls in bottom of ninth at Illinois State

Friday, April 16

Normal, Ill.

4:30 PM

Southern Illinois University

16-18, 5-5

Illinois State

16-15, 6-1

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

04/16/2010 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

April 16, 2010

By Jason Clay
www.SIUSalukis.com

Box Score

NORMAL, Ill. - Saluki catcher Tyler Bullock hit two, two-run homers, but Illinois State designated hitter Anthony Ruffolo's walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth gave the Redbirds a 6-5 win over the Southern Illinois baseball team on Friday in the first game of the series at Duffy Bass Field.

It was Bullock's third career two-home run game, but Illinois State hit four homers of its own. SIU falls to 16-18 overall and 5-5 in the Missouri Valley Conference while the first-place Redbirds improve to 16-15 and 6-1 in league play.

In his first career start, senior right-handed pitcher Bryant George lasted four innings, yielding four runs off of five hits. All of those runs came off three Redbird homers in the first inning. After his rough start, George retired 11 of the last 13 batters he faced and he finished with a career-high six strikeouts.

Cody Forsythe replaced George in the fifth and lasted two innings, allowing only one run. Senior Kellen Candau then pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth inning. He ended up drawing the loss, as he walked Kevin Tokarski, who scored on Ruffolo's game-winning single, to start the ninth.

Redbird closer Kennon Long (2-2) picked up the victory, throwing one and one-thirds of scoreless ball.

SIU senior right fielder Aaron Roberts had a game-high three hits and the Dawgs finished the night with 12. Blake Pinnon drove in one run in the fifth on a double and Bullock finished with those four RBIs. He now has hit 24 homers in his career and has moved into a tie for sixth for the most hit in school history.

Illinois State was led offensively by first baseman Zach Amrein, who belted a pair of solo home runs. The Redbirds matched SIU's hit total of 12, but they did not commit an error on the evening.

For the first time in the since April 4 against Bradley, Southern Illinois was the first team to score. That came via Bullock's two-out, two-run homer, but Illinois State hit three home runs in the bottom half of the first to lead 4-2.

After the four home runs in the first inning, the bats cooled off and both teams combined for only four hits over the next three innings.

Chris Serritella led off the fifth with a bloop single to right and Bullock followed with his second opposite-field homer to tie the game at four.

Pinnon's RBI double that scored Roberts in the sixth gave SIU its first lead since the first inning.

But just as it went in the first inning, Illinois State powered right back in the bottom of the inning to prevent Southern Illinois from maintaining a lead. Amrein's solo shot off the right field scoreboard knotted the game up at five.

The score remained locked in at five entering the ninth. Illinois State closer Kenny Long got the Salukis to go three-up and three-down.

The first two Redbird batters reached base in the ninth. Ryan Bradley then replaced Candau and he got a big first out by striking out Jake Thornton. However, Ruffolo followed with a line drive that just cleared Chris Murphy's glove in center field to bring home the winning run.

Southern Illinois and Illinois State return to Duffy Bass Field on Saturday for game two of the series . First pitch is set for 2 p.m. "Voice of the Salukis" Mike Reis will be calling the game on the Saluki Radio Network on WFRX 1300-AM.