Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Baseball begins Valley play at Evansville this weekend
04/07/2011 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
April 7, 2011
By Jason Clay
SIUSalukis.com
Evansville Series: Games 28-30
Southern Illinois (8-19, 0-0 MVC) at Evansville (17-9, 0-0 MVC)
Game Dates & Times:
Friday, April 8 - 6 p.m. CT
Saturday, April 9 - 2 p.m. CT
Sunday, April 10 - 1 p.m. CT
Location: Evansville, Ind. - Braun Stadium (1,200)
Radio: On WVZA 105.1-FM Friday and WFRX 1300-AM on Saturday and Sunday with the call of SIU Hall of Fame broadcaster Mike Reis.
Live Stats: SIUSalukis.com
Radio Streaming: Through Game Central at SIUSalukis.com
Weather Forecast:
Friday - 80 degrees, 30 percent chance of isolated thunderstorms
Saturday - 83 degrees, 40 percent chance of scattered thunderstorms
Sunday - 82 degrees, mostly cloudy
Quick Hits
→ The Southern Illinois baseball team opens up conference play this weekend when it travels to Evansville for a three-game series at Braun Stadium. The Salukis and Purple Aces will be meeting for the 144th, 145th and 146th times in program history. Fans can listen to Friday's 6 p.m. game on WVZA 105.1-FM and Saturday and Sunday's games at WFRX 1300-AM with the call of Mike Reis. Radio streaming is available on the web at SIUSalukis.com through Game Central.
→ Last year, the Salukis took two of the three games from the Purple Aces in the regular season series. Evansville won, 14-2, in eight innings in the series opener, but Southern came back to win the final two games by two runs each time. Evansville defeated Southern, 11-5, in the first game of the 2010 MVC Tournament.
→ SIU is coming off a 9-0 victory over Murray State on Wednesday. It was Southern's second shutout of the season. SIU scored seven of its nine runs in the game off extra-base hits. Senior pitcher Andrew Bever allowed only four hits in six innings to earn his second victory of the season.
Southern's first shutout of the season was back on March 6 at Memphis (2-0). That same Memphis ball club swept Evansville in the first weekend of the season. → The Salukis are batting .331 as a team in their last four games and are averaging over 12 hits and seven runs per game.
→ Sophomore second baseman Brock Harding enters the weekend series with a 12-game hitting streak. That is the longest active streak in the Missouri Valley Conference.
→ Sophomore pitcher Aaron Snyder will miss the remainder of the season, as he is having season-ending elbow surgery next week. His loss limits the Saluki bullpen to just eight active arms available for relief. SIU's 11-member pitching staff is tied for the third-smallest in the nation with Youngstown State and Campbell.
→ RHP Cameron Maldonado and LHP Cody Forsythe, SIU's projected starters for Friday and Saturday, combined last weekend to allow just two runs with 11 strikeouts in their two starts. Maldonado has struck out 29 batters this year with 15 walks while Forsythe has 31 strikeouts against five walks, which is the fewest allowed by a starting pitcher in the Valley.
