Baseball swept at Middle Tennessee

Sunday, May 9

Murfreesboro, Tenn.

1:00 P.M.

Southern Illinois University

23-25

Middle Tennessee

29-18

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Southern Illinois	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	4	0
Middle Tennessee	0	0	4	0	4	2	0	0	X	10	12	1

05/09/2010 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

May 9, 2010

By Jason Clay
www.SIUSalukis.com

Box Score

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Middle Tennessee used a pair of four-run innings to blow past the Southern Illinois baseball team, as the Salukis fell 10-2 on Sunday at Reese Smith Jr. Field.

The Blue Raider victory completes the series and season sweep over the Salukis (23-25), as Middle Tennessee (29-18) won all five games between the schools this season.

Sophomore Chris Serritella extended his hitting streak to 19 games with his single in the fourth inning. He was 1-for-3 on the day with a walk and is now hitting .434 over the course of his hitting streak.

Southern Illinois finished the game with four hits, its second lowest output on the year.

Middle Tennessee had 12 hits on Sunday and right fielder Bryce Brentz drove in four of its 10 runs on the day. His three-run homer in the third inning was his 13th of the season and the 71st for MTSU.

Blue Raider right-hander Eric Gilley (5-2) threw 7.0 innings to earn the victory. He only gave up one earned run off of the three hits and he struck out four batters.

SIU's Jimmy Cornell (2-4) went 4.1 innings in the loss. He gave up six hits and six runs in his ninth start of the year to go along with three strikeouts and two walks.

Southern Illinois scored a rather unusual run in the first inning. Chris Murphy struck out swinging to leadoff the game. Strike three was in the dirt and the throw from Blue Raider catcher Tyler Acker to retire Murphy at first went to right field. That allowed Murphy to advance all the way to third on the error and Blake Pinnon drove him home on his ground ball to the right-side of the infield.

Freshman Austin Montgomery led off the second inning with a double to right-center and classmate Brock Harding brought him home three batters later for SIU's second run of the game.

Middle Tennessee got those runs back in the third off of three hits a one monster three-run homer from Brentz to give the Blue Raiders a 4-2 lead.

That lead went up to 8-2 in the fifth, as MTSU posted its second four-run inning game and fourth of the series.

Middle Tennessee got two more runs in the sixth and Southern didn't score again after the second inning as the Blue Raiders finished off the Salukis for the series sweep.