Baseball can't protect lead in 6-5 loss

Saturday, April 2

Kennesaw, Ga.

1:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

7-18

Kennesaw State

17-12

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Southern Illinois	2	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	5	12	3
Kennesaw State	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	2	2	6	13	3

04/02/2011 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

April 2, 2011

By Jason Clay
SIUSalukis.com

Box Score

KENNESAW, Ga. - Kennesaw State came back from a 5-1 deficit and scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to defeat the Southern Illinois baseball team, 6-5, Saturday afternoon at Stillwell Stadium.

SIU (7-18) and Kennesaw State (17-12) will meet at 12 p.m. CT Sunday to decide the series. The Salukis are seeking their first series victory of the season.

The Salukis held a 5-1 lead after the top of the seventh, but the Owls crawled back with a run in the bottom of the seventh, two in the eighth and the two winning runs in the ninth.

Andy Chriscaden's RBI single tied the game in the ninth and then Drew Fowlkes brought home the winning run with his two-out single up the middle to cap off five unanswered runs for the Owls.

Saluki starting pitcher Cody Forsythe left after the sixth inning with a 4-1 lead, but did not receive the decision as the Salukis couldn't hold onto his lead. Forsythe allowed seven hits in his six innings of work and had four strikeouts against just one walk.

Kennesaw State out-hit Southern, 13-12, with six of KSU's hits coming in the last three innings. Both teams committed three errors in the game.

Wes Neece and Austin Montgomery led the Dawgs at the plate, as they both had three hits. Neece drove in one run and scored twice. Second baseman Brock Harding went 1-for-5 to extend his hitting streak to 10 games.

Sophomore reliever Austin Johnson drew the loss (0-4), as he gave up the winning runs in the ninth. KSU closer J.B. Johnson drew the win to improve to 2-1 on the year.

The Salukis jumped on the Owls right from the onset, scoring three runs off of six hits in the first two innings. Chris Murphy and Neece, both of whom had two hits in the first two innings, had RBI singles.

Kennesaw State got on the scoreboard in the third on Sean McClurken's RBI single down the right-field line.

SIU then went quiet until the sixth and seventh innings when they got a pair of sacrifice fly's to extend its lead to 5-1. Brian Bajer had the sac fly in the sixth and Jordan Sivertsen added one in the seventh.

Back-to-back two-out doubles from the Owls in the bottom of the seventh scored one run to close the gap down to three. Then in the bottom of the eighth, Jordan Craft's two-run triple cut Southern's lead down to 5-4.

Kennesaw State was able to complete the comeback in the ninth with two runs to even the series out at one game apiece.