Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
21-32, 10-10
Indiana State
26-25, 8-12
Bajer, Maldonado lead Baseball past Indiana State
05/20/2011 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
May 20, 2011
By Jason Clay
SIUSalukis.com
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Southern Illinois received strong pitching from Cameron Maldonado and Brian Bajer's three-run double in the fifth-inning lifted the Salukis past Indiana State, 5-2, Friday night at Bob Warn Field.
The win secures the Salukis with the No. 5 seed at next week's Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in Omaha, Neb. SIU's victory sets up Saturday's rubber game that begins at 12 p.m.
The Salukis (21-32, 10-10 MVC) didn't have a hit until the fourth inning when they scored five runs and they all came with two outs. Three walks from ISU starter Sean Manaea helped the Dawgs out in the inning that produced all of their runs in the game.
Sycamore right-fielder Robby Ort hit a two-run homer in the first inning off of Maldonado, but Maldonado gave up just three hits after that. He exited after seven innings with a 5-2 lead.
Maldonado (4-7) picked up his first win since throwing 8.1 innings and giving up no earned runs at Evansville on April 8. He gave up just five hits in his seven innings Friday and had two strikeouts with two walks.
Saluki freshman reliever Matt Murphy threw two hitless innings to close out the game and record the first save of his career.
Manaea drew the loss for the Sycamores (26-25, 8-12) to drop his record down to 5-4 on the year. He went 3.2 innings, allowing three runs off of five hits and he had four strikeouts to go along with the three costly walks in SIU's big fourth inning.
Bajer finished the game going 1-for-4, but his one two-out double with the bases loaded was the clutch hit that SIU was missing in Thursday's 4-1 loss.
Third baseman Blake Pinnon was 2-for-3 on the day with a walk, one run scored and one driven in on an infield single in that fourth inning.
Southern Illinois finished with six hits in the game to Indiana State's five.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Maldonado, Cameron (4-7)
L: Manaea, Sean (5-4)
S: Murphy, Matt (1)
Batting:
2B: Bajer, Brian 1
RBI: Pinnon, Blake 1 ; Neece, Wes 1 ; Bajer, Brian 3
SH: Harding, Brock 1 ; Neece, Wes 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Welch, Jake 1 ; Sivertsen, Jordan 1 ; Johnson, Nick 1 ; Pinnon, Blake 1 ; Neece, Wes 1
HBP: Welch, Jake 1
Batting:
2B: Kraemer, Koby 1 ; Pearson, Jordan 1
HR: Ort, Robby 1
RBI: Ort, Robby 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Kraemer, Koby 1 ; Ort, Robby 1
SB: Kraemer, Koby 1 ; Hileman, Lucas 1
HBP: Wampler, Tyler 1
