Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
20-31
Saint Louis
27-25
Baseball rips Billikens, 14-4, in hit parade
05/17/2011 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
May 17, 2011
By Jason Clay
SIUSalukis.com
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - The Southern Illinois baseball team set new season-highs for hits in a game and runs scored, as the Salukis pounded out a 14-4 victory at Saint Louis late Tuesday evening at the Billiken Sports Complex.
Chris Murphy and Brock Harding both set new career-highs with five hits in the game. Murphy was 5-for-7, finished a home run shy of hitting for the cycle, had two RBIs and scored three runs. Harding was 5-for-6 with a career-high four RBIs, two doubles and two runs scored.
Every Saluki in the starting order had a hit, three had three or more hits and five different Salukis drove in two runs. SIU (20-31) finished with 21 hits in the game, which is the most since posting 23 hits at UT Martin on March 23, 2010. The 10-run victory over the Billikens (27-25) also ties its largest of the season.
Blake Pinnon was the third SIU batter with three hits, as he finished the night going 3-for-6.
Freshman right-hander Bryan Waldrop made his second career start. He threw four innings and only allowed one run on three hits. Classmate Peter Slavonic (1-1) picked up his first career win, as he was the pitcher of record in the fifth.
Murphy set the tone for a five-run first inning for the Salukis, as he doubled down the left-field line to start the game. He scored on Jake Welch's single and Jordan Sivertsen plated another two with his double that was a few feet shy of being a grand slam. The fifth run came home when Donny Duschinsky was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
A walk from Waldrop in the fourth led to the Billiken's first run of the game.
SIU scored six more in the fifth off of seven hits, including triples from Murphy and Austin Montgomery. Murphy drove in a pair on his triple and Wes Neece also brought home two with his double down the right-field line.
Southern had 16 hits through five innings, which was already more than it's had in any other game this season.
Connor Gondossy made it an 11-3 game with his two-out, two-run homer in the sixth. That was the fifth Billiken hit in the game.
Harding's fourth hit in the game, a double in the seventh, drove home Kollin Dowdy and then his bases-loaded double in the eighth plated another two runs.
Saint Louis tacked on one unearned run in the eighth to end the scoring Tuesday.
Notes: The game was delayed a half hour at the start because the umpires did not show up...A number of former Salukis were on-hand to watch Tuesday's ball game. Saluki alum in the crowd included Bob Hardcastle (1959-62), Bob Geary (1990-91), Kevin Waldrop (1976,79; father of Bryan Waldrop),
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Slavonic, Peter (1-1)
L: C.J. Rose (0-1)
Batting:
2B: Murphy, Chris 1 ; Harding, Brock 2 ; Sivertsen, Jordan 1 ; Neece, Wes 1
3B: Murphy, Chris 1 ; Montgomery, Austin 1
RBI: Murphy, Chris 2 ; Welch, Jake 2 ; Harding, Brock 4 ; Sivertsen, Jordan 2 ; Neece, Wes 2 ; Duschinsky, Donny 1 ; Bajer, Brian 1
SF: Welch, Jake 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Murphy, Chris 3 ; Welch, Jake 1 ; Montgomery, Austin 2 ; Dowdy, Kollin 1 ; Harding, Brock 2 ; Sivertsen, Jordan 2 ; Duschinsky, Donny 2 ; Bajer, Brian 1
CS: Pinnon, Blake 1
HBP: Duschinsky, Donny 1
Batting:
HR: Connor Gandossy 1
RBI: Travis Parker 1 ; Marco DiRoma 1 ; Connor Gandossy 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Jerry Mancuso 3 ; Connor Gandossy 1
SB: Nick Becker 1
HBP: Nick Becker 1
