Middle Tennessee comes back to defeat Baseball

Wednesday, March 16

Murfreesboro, Tenn.

3:00 P.M.

Southern Illinois University

4-12

Middle Tennessee

5-10

Southern Illinois

Middle Tennessee

03/16/2011 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

March 16, 2011

By Jason Clay
SIUSalukis.com

Box Score

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The Southern Illinois baseball team gave up a three-run lead and Middle Tennessee came back to beat the Salukis, 7-5, Wednesday at Reese Smith Jr. Field.

The Salukis (4-12) led 3-0 after two and 5-2 after four, but Middle Tennessee (5-10) scored all seven of its runs from the fourth through seventh innings to come back for the victory. Southern Illinois has now lost six-straight games overall and eight-straight to the Blue Raiders, dating back to 2009.

SIU had struggled offensively over the course of its last five losses, but busted out the bats and recorded 14 hits Wednesday. That is the second most in a game this year. However, Southern stranded 12 men on base in the loss.

Senior center fielder Chris Murphy matched his career-high with four hits, doing so for the second time in his last six games. He was 4-for-5 with one run driven in.

Southern Illinois starter Andrew Bever did not draw the decision in the game. He lasted six innings and gave up six hits, four runs, with four strikeouts in his fourth start. Bever exited with a 5-4 lead.

Sophomore reliever Austin Johnson drew his first career loss, as he gave up three runs on four hits in the seventh inning when the Blue Raiders took the lead.

Middle Tennessee reliever Joey McClung (1-0) came in the sixth and threw 2.1 scoreless innings to record the win. He gave up just one hit and struck out three. Paul Mittura recorded his second save of the season.

The Blue Raiders recorded 10 hits in the game and were led by leadoff hitter Justin Guidry. He was 3-for-4 on the day with two runs scored and one driven in.

Catcher Dustin Huff gave the Salukis a 1-0 lead with his RBI double to left-center in the second inning. It was Huff's first career RBI and first career extra-base hit, as he came into the game with just one hit in 13 at-bats.

Three straight singles, all with two outs, brought home two more runs in the second. Murphy and Nick Johnson were responsible for driving in the other two runs in the inning.

Bever had retired all nine Blue Raider batters on their first trip through the lineup and had three strikeouts through the first three innings.

However, Middle Tennessee was able to get to Bever the second time around its lineup. The Blue Raiders cut SIU's lead down to one by scoring two runs off of three hits in the fourth inning.

SIU answered with two runs in the fifth thanks to RBI singles from Brock Harding and Wes Neece.

Middle Tennessee went on to score one run in the fifth, one in the sixth and three in the seventh inning to notch the 7-5 win.