Missouri State hands Baseball first MVC loss

Saturday, April 16

Carbondale, Ill.

2:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

12-21, 3-1

Missouri State

20-12, 3-1

Missouri State

Southern Illinois

04/16/2011 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

April 16, 2011

By Jason Clay
SIUSalukis.com

Box Score

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois committed four errors and Missouri State used 13 hits to hand the Salukis their first Missouri Valley Conference loss of the season with an 11-4 victory over SIU on Saturday at Abe Martin Field.

This was the first game of the series, as Friday's game was pushed back because of rain. The teams are set to play a doubleheader Sunday, beginning at noon.

Missouri State (20-12, 3-1 MVC) scored five runs in the second and six in the fourth to blow past Southern (12-21, 3-1).

The Salukis committed three errors in the second and MSU got four hits to score its five runs. Then in the fourth, Missouri State scored five of its six runs in the inning with two outs thanks to five-straight two-out hits.

"We just had a bad day," interim head coach Ken Henderson said. "Their pitcher was very good and we knew that. He set the tone for them striking out the side in the first inning."

MSU right-handed pitcher Nick Petree improved to 5-0 with his dominant performance. He gave up six hits and two runs in seven innings and had seven strikeouts against one walk.

Saluki junior pitcher Cameron Maldonado (3-5) saw his two-game winning streak come to an end, as the Bears roughed him up for nine hits and 10 runs (seven earned) in 3.2 innings. Maldonado struck out four and walked three.

SIU reliever Peter Slavonic replaced Maldonado with two outs in the fourth. He gave up three hits in that inning, but retired 13 in a row after that and had four strikeouts.

Freshman shortstop Jake Welch was 2-for-4 in the game with two RBIs to lead the Salukis. His second-inning double with two outs scored two runs.

Brock Harding's fifth double of the season plated one of two Saluki runs in the eighth, the other coming on Jordan Sivertsen's sacrifice fly.

Southern Illinois finished with nine hits in the game. Austin Montgomery and Harding both had two hits in the game to go along with Welch.

Kevin Medrano, Travis McComack and Derek Mattea all drove in two runs to lead Missouri State at the plate.