Illinois State sweeps Baseball with 9-7 win on Sunday

Sunday, April 18

Normal, Ill.

1:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

16-20, 5-7

Illinois State

18-15, 8-1

Southern Illinois

Illinois State

04/18/2010 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

April 18, 2010

By Jason Clay
www.SIUSalukis.com

Box Score

NORMAL, Ill. - The Southern Illinois baseball team led 6-0 after two and a half innings, but Illinois State crawled back and used a four-run eighth to defeat the Salukis, 9-7, on Sunday at Duff Bass Field to give the Redbirds the series sweep over the Dawgs.

The Salukis (16-20, 5-7 MVC) scored two runs in each of the first three innings, but left the bags full in the second and two on in scoring position in the third. The missed opportunities to put the game away early hurt the Dawgs and they stranded nine base runners in all on Sunday.

"It's disappointing how we performed down the stretch these past couple of days," head coach Dan Callahan said. "As good as we were out of the bullpen on Wednesday, we were not very good on the weekend.

"We get to play again and our season is not over. We're going to have to go out and compete and not feel sorry for ourselves and we have to figure out how to fight our way through this."

Illinois State (18-15, 8-1) second baseman Kevin Tokarski, who had two doubles, four hits and three RBIs, gave the Redbirds its first lead of the game in the eighth on a two-RBI double. ISU closer Kenny Long threw two scoreless innings to pick up the victory, as he recorded the win in all three games of the series.

Southern Illinois starter Randy Hoelscher lasted six innings and scattered eight hits. He did not allow an earned run and had three strikeouts against no walks. Hoelscher, who has now only walked one of the last 99 batters he's faced, exited with a 7-4 lead.

Senior Tyler Bullock hit his third home run of the series and catcher Brian Bajer was the only SIU hitter with two hits in the game. Southern Illinois as a team had just eight hits to ISU's 15 and the Dawgs committed three errors that led to five unearned runs.

Junior center fielder Chris Murphy had two RBIs off of one hit in four at-bats.

Just like he did in Friday's game, Bullock hit a two-run, two-out homer in the first inning. He took the 10th pitch of the at-bat and skied it out over the right-field wall.

SIU chased Redbird starter Ryan Camp out of the game in the second inning after Murphy and Blake Pinnon both drove in runs. Cam Verbeke then came in with two outs and the bases loaded. He got the Redbirds out of the jam by getting Michael Stalter to fly out to right field.

The Salukis loaded the bags up again in the third inning. Bajer, who led off the inning with a single, scored when Murphy was hit by a pitch on a 0-2 count. Tony Lepore scored on a wild pitch from Verbeke, but SIU stranded two more base runners in scoring position.

Two Saluki errors in the bottom of the third extended the inning and allowed one unearned run to come home before Anthony Ruffolo came to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded. He hit a hard liner that snuck under the glove of the diving Murphy and the ball reached the wall for a bases-clearing triple. The four unearned runs in the third cut Southern Illinois' lead down to 6-4.

An Illinois State throwing error in the fourth allowed Stalter to score from second base and SIU got back one of the unearned runs that they gave up in the third.

Hoelscher maintained the 7-4 Saluki lead through the sixth inning and Daniel Etienne replaced him on the mound in the seventh.

ISU catcher Matt Mirabal cut the Saluki lead down to two with his RBI single through the left side in the seventh. Mirabal finished the game by going 3-for-5.

Pinch hitter Ty Wiesemeyer cut the lead down to one with a RBI double in the eighth and then Tokarski followed with his second double of the game. That scored two runs and gave Illinois State its first lead of the game.

The Redbirds tacked on one more unearned run before the eighth ended to go up 9-7. Long, who came into pitch in the eighth, shut down the Dawgs in the ninth to pick up his third win in the series.