Baseball drops rubber game to Illinois State

Sunday, May 15

Carbondale, Ill.

1:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

19-31, 9-9

Illinois State

31-16, 10-8

Illinois State

Southern Illinois

05/15/2011 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

May 15, 2011

By Jason Clay
SIUSalukis.com

Box Score | Photo Gallery

CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois baseball team only managed two runs off of nine hits and left nine on-base in an 8-2 loss to Illinois State Sunday as the Redbirds won the rubber game to take the series.

SIU (19-31, 9-9 Missouri Valley Conference) ends its slender 18-game home season with a 5-13 record at Abe Martin Field. Illinois State moves to 31-16 overall and 10-8 in the Valley with the win.

"I thought we played well today, but it was just one of those days where none of the breaks went our way," interim head coach Ken Henderson said. "(Andrew) Bever threw very, very well and kept us in the game. I'm not disappointed with our effort today, but again, it just didn't go our way."

Senior pitcher Andrew Bever made his first career MVC and weekend start and gave the Salukis a chance, but he was outshined by Redbird right-hander JD Learnard. Learnard improved to 7-2 on the year by allowing just two runs (one earned) in six innings and he had four strikeouts with one walk.

Bever (4-5) went 6.1 innings on senior day and gave up five runs off of six hits. He had five strikeouts and just one walk.

Illinois State finished with 13 hits in the game and was led by leadoff hitter Chad Hinshaw, who was 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two driven in.

Austin Montgomery, Jordan Sivertsen and Wes Neece all had two hits in the game and Neece had SIU's only RBI on the day.

Zach Amrein's two-run homer with two outs in the second inning gave the Redbirds the early 2-0 lead. Tyler McNeely's two-out RBI single in the third pushed another run across for ISU.

Neece got SIU on the board in the fourth with his two-out RBI single that plated Sivertsen. Neece came into the game with just three hits in his last 12 games and it was his first run driven in since April 19.

After Bever gave up the RBI single to McNeely in the third, he retired the next 10 batters he faced to keep SIU in the game trailing 3-1 entering the bottom of the sixth.

That's when a two-out error from ISU shortstop Josh Colon on a wide throw to first base allowed Blake Pinnon to score from second.

However, the Redbirds came back and scored three, two-out runs in the seventh to take their biggest lead of the game, 6-2.

Illinois State then put the game away with two more runs in the eighth.