Baseball drops home opener to Le Moyne, 10-9

Wednesday, March 9

Carbondale, Ill.

2:00 P.M.

Southern Illinois University

4-7

Le Moyne College

2-9

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Le Moyne	0	3	2	1	1	1	0	2	0	10	11	2
Southern Illinois	5	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	0	9	10	2

03/09/2011 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

March 9, 2011

By Jason Clay
SIUSalukis.com

Box Score | Photo Gallery

CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois baseball team led 5-0 after one, but Le Moyne crawled back and ended up beating the Salukis, 10-9, Wednesday at Abe Martin Field.

After Tuesday's game was rained out, the Salukis end up losing their first home game of the season and fall back to 4-7 on the year. Le Moyne improves to 2-9 with the victory.

The Saluki bullpen, which has been strong all season, gave up five runs and the Dolphins scored in six of the nine innings to defeat Southern.

Le Moyne out-hit SIU 11-10 on the day and the Salukis stranded 10 on base, including two in the ninth inning. Southern Illinois struck out 13 times in the game.

Chris Murphy netted his third-career four-hit game, as he was 4-for-5 with a pair of doubles, three runs scored and one driven in. Left fielder Jordan Sivertsen was 2-for-4 with two RBIs, two runs scored and he hit his second homer of the season.

Le Moyne was led at the plate by Kody O'Connor, who was 2-for-5 with three RBIs.

Dolphin reliever Erik Lambe picked up his first victory of the season (1-0), as he threw 3.2 innings and struck out four batters. Jerome Werniuk recorded the save, as he sat down two Salukis in the ninth when he inherited a pair of base runners with one out.

Southern used a season-high six pitchers in the game. Freshman Todd Eaton (1-2) drew the loss, as he was credited with two runs in the eighth inning that proved to be enough for Le Moyne.

There were nine extra-base hits in the game, as soggy field conditions from Tuesday's rain affected play. Any ball hit into the outfield died immediately in the soaked grass.

Southern Illinois jumped out to an early 5-0 lead after the first inning. This outburst was good to see, as the Salukis had not scored in either the first or second inning in each of their first 10 games this year.

However, Le Moyne would crawl back and eventually take the lead as the Dolphins scored in every inning from the second through the sixth. LMC took its first lead in the fourth and led 8-7 after six.

The Salukis got one run in the fifth when Brian Bajer, who finished with a season-high three RBIs, drew a bases-loaded walk. Then in the sixth, Murphy's RBI single made it the 8-7 game.

Sivertsen tied the game up in the bottom of the seventh with a monster home run to left-center.

Le Moyne loaded the bases up immediately in the eighth with a single, walk and hit batsman. A second walk brought in the Dolphins ninth run and they got one more in the inning on a ground-ball double play when the bags were still full.

A fielding error in the bottom of the eighth, Le Moyne's second of the game, allowed the Salukis to cut the lead down to one, 10-9.

Saluki freshman reliever Bryan Waldrop got Le Moyne to go three-up and three-down in the top of the ninth. Then with one out in the bottom half of the inning, SIU drew back-to-back walks.

However, Dolphin reliever Jerome Werniuk entered the game and struck out pinch-hitter Blake Pinnon and retired Jake Welch to end the game.