Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Baseball to face Missouri State Tuesday in MVC Tournament
05/22/2011 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
May 22, 2011
By Jason Clay
SIUSalukis.com
Saluki Baseball Tournament Notes
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois baseball team heads into the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament as the No. 5 seed and faces fourth-seeded Missouri State on Tuesday at 4 p.m. from TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb.
SIU (22-32, 11-10 MVC) enters the tournament winners in three out of its last four games and took 2-of-3 at Indiana State to close out the regular season.
Missouri State (31-21, 11-9) was swept at Creighton to close out the regular season.
The Bears were able to take the three-game series against the Salukis this year back in mid-April. MSU took game one, 11-4, on Saturday, April 16 after inclement weather pushed the series opener back one day.
Then on Sunday, April 17, the two teams split a doubleheader. SIU won game one, 11-1, in seven innings behind a complete game from sophomore pitcher Cody Forsythe.
The Salukis held a 4-0 lead after five innings in the third game, but squandered it and the Bears scored two in the sixth, one in the seventh and two in the eighth to come back and beat SIU to take the series.
Southern Illinois is 4-6 overall against the Bears in the MVC Tournament and MSU knocked the Dawgs out of the 2010 tournament with a 14-10 win in Wichita, Kan.
Forsythe is SIU's projected starter for the Tuesday's opener. He carries a 2.08 ERA and 8-4 record and will likely face MSU right-hander Nick Petree. Petree was 8-2 in the regular season with a 2.93 ERA and he held SIU to six hits, two runs and struck out seven batters in seven innings in his win over Southern on April 16.
Offensively, Southern looks for junior outfielder Jordan Sivertsen to continue to lead the team at the plate. In the Missouri State series during the regular season, Sivertsen was 3-for-8 with nine RBIs, two doubles, three walks and one grand slam in the 11-1 victory where he posted a career-high six RBIs.
Fans can watch the Salukis as the try for their first MVC Tournament Championship since 1990 for free via the internet at MVC-Sports.com. Mike Reis and the Saluki Sports Network is also broadcasting all Saluki games from the Valley Tournament and Tuesday's opener can be heard on WVZA 105.1-FM in Carbondale and on the internet through Game Central at SIUSalukis.com.
Live stats are also available at SIUSalukis.com.
