Western Kentucky outlasts SIU baseball in series opener

Friday, February 24

Bowling Green, Ky.

3:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

2-3

Western Kentucky

2-3

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Southern Illinois	1	3	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	9	16	4
Western Kentucky	0	0	3	1	0	0	0	1	2	1	1	0	1	10	19	2

02/24/2012 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - Western Kentucky outlasted the Southern Illinois baseball team to defeat the Salukis, 10-9, in a 13-inning game Friday night in the first game of a three-game series at Nick Denes Field. SIU blew four leads but never trailed until Devin Kelly hit an RBI single to center field to score Steve Hodgins and end the game.

"I give our kids a great deal of credit for how hard we battled," SIU Coach Ken Henderson said. "It would've been very easy to be demoralized and give up, but on four different occasions we kept battling and finding ways. But the bottom line is we didn't make routine plays, and that was the difference in the ballgame."

Matt Murphy took the loss for SIU. He blew the save when he allowed a run in the bottom of the 11th inning and then allowed the game-winner in the 13th. WKU's Austin Clay took home the win. He entered with two outs in the top of the 11^th and held SIU scoreless the rest of the way. Clay was the only one of the four Hilltoppers pitchers used in the game who did not depart the game in line for the loss.

The Salukis were one out away from a victory in the bottom of the ninth when second baseman Brock Harding bobbled a ground ball at second base. In his rush to recover, he overthrew first baseman Chris Serritella to allow two runs to score and tie the game at 7-7. Todd Eaton struck out the next batter, Ivan Hartle, to send the game into extra innings.

Southern Illinois committed four errors in the game, three of them in the ninth inning or later.

"We had three different opportunities to win the game by making one routine play," Henderson said, "and didn't do it any of the three times."

The two teams combined for 35 hits and stranded 29 batters in the game.

Harding redeemed himself in the top of the 10th when he led off the inning with a single and scored what would've been the game-winning run on Jake Welch's two-out RBI single to give the Dawgs an 8-7 lead. However, WKU responded with another unearned run off Eaton in the bottom half of the 10^th.

Eaton allowed three runs, all of them unearned, in his two innings of work.

The scenario was repeated in the 11^th inning when the Salukis scored a single run in the top of the inning to take a 9-8 lead, and WKU again retaliated with a run of their own to extend the game.

The 13-inning affair was the longest played by the Salukis since a 15-inning victory over Bradley on April 2, 2010.

After taking a 1-0 first inning lead, the Salukis rallied for three runs off four singles in the second inning to extend the lead to 4-0. Rennie Troggio drove in his first run career run on his first career hit. Two batters later, Chris Serritella drove in a pair with a line drive to left field. Serritella finished the day 4-for-6 with three singles.

The Hilltoppers climbed back into the game with a three-run third inning. Ivan Hartle's bases loaded double over Troggio's head in center field scored two, and Jared Andreoli capped the rally by scoring on Ryan Huck's ground out to cut the SIU lead to 4-3. WKU then knotted the game at 4-4 in the fourth inning on Steve Hodgins's RBI single.

The Salukis built up a 7-4 lead in the middle innings before surrendering it in the bottom of the ninth.

SIU starter Cody Forsythe allowed four runs, three of them earned, in five and a third innings and was in line for his first win of the season before WKU tied the game in the ninth.

Forsythe picked up right where he left off in last week's opener by extending his hitless streak to six innings with a perfect first two innings before allowing the first four batters to reach in the third. Three runs crossed the plate that inning. After surrendering the tying run in the fourth, he recovered to strike out two Hilltoppers in the fifth before leaving with runners on at first and second base in the sixth inning.

Coach Henderson said he expects the team to be ready to bounce back quickly from the tough loss.

"You're going to see the character of our guys by how they come out ready to play tomorrow," Henderson said. "I will be very surprised if they don't come out ready to play tomorrow. That's one of the beautiful things about baseball. You don't have to wait a week to play again. You get to turn around and do it again quickly so we'll be ready."

The series continues with Western Kentucky Saturday at 1 p.m. Cameron Maldonado (0-0, 3.60) will make the start for SIU against righty Justin Hageman (0-0, 0.00) for WKU.