Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Baseball hosts NIU, Illinois for weekend series
03/15/2012 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
March 15, 2012
By Scott Gierman
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois baseball team will play Illinois and Northern Illinois two games each for a total of four games this weekend. SIU will try to extend a season-best winning streak to five games when it opens the weekend with a Friday doubleheader featuring an 11 a.m. game against NIU followed by a game against Illinois.
SERIES INFORMATION
Date: March 16-18
Time: Fri. vs. NIU - 11 a.m. CDT, Fri. vs. Illinois - 2:30 p.m. CDT, Sat. vs. NIU - 2:30 p.m., Sun. vs. Illinois - 2:30 p.m.
Location: Fri. and Sat. - Abe Martin Field in Carbondale, Ill., Sun. - Rent One Park in Marion, Ill.
Radio: All four games on WFRX 1300-AM and streaming through Game Central
Video: Streaming through Game Central
FRIDAY'S STARTERS Against NIU, Cameron Maldonado will make his fifth start of 2012. In his last outing, he picked up the win against Jacksonville State on Saturday. He allowed three runs in a season-best seven innings of work. Against Illinois, Junior Cody Forsythe will make his fifth start of the season. In his last outing, he tossed six shutout innings before finally allowing a run in the seventh. He struck out eight batters in the game, the most by a Saluki this season. The 2011 First Team All-MVC pitcher has left with the lead in each of his previous three starts. Forsythe has lasted at least five innings in 18 of his last 19 starts.
NIU SERIES NOTES Southern Illinois leads the all-time series, 45-27. The two teams first played against one another in 1948 and more recently have played each other at least once a year since 2003, always in Southern Illinois. Over the last five years, SIU is 6-7 against NIU and has dropped the last two meetings.
ILLINOIS SERIES NOTES In a rivalry that dates back to 1954, Southern Illinois leads the all-time series, 30-23. SIU has won three of its last four games against the Illini, including two shutout victories in 2011. Friday will mark the first time Illinois has played at Abe Martin Field since 2007. Sunday will be the fifth consecutive year that SIU and Illinois have played at Rent One Park. The Salukis will play the Illini in Champaign on May 1.
WE'RE STREAKING SIU enters the weekend riding a season-best four-game winning streak. The last time the Dawgs won five in a row was May 15-21, 2010. The school's last win streak of six games or more was an eight-game streak that began exactly five years ago Friday and ran from March 16-28, 2007.
SCOUTING NIU The Huskies returned seven of nine starters from last year's team, which went 30-27. This year's squad was picked to finish fourth out of six teams in the MAC West Division in the preseason coaches' poll. However, the pitching has struggled this season. Of the five pitchers who have started a game, none has an ERA under 6.00. Second baseman Jordan Huffman, who transferred to NIU this season from junior college, leads the offense with a .343 average in eight starts. Senior Alex Jones is the only other regular hitting over .300. The 2011 All-MAC shortstop is hitting .304.
SCOUTING ILLINOIS Illinois was picked to finish sixth in the Big Ten this season after going 30-27 and winning a share of the Big Ten title with a 15-9 conference record in 2011. After starting the year 1-4, the Illini have won three of their last four and six of their last eight games. The ace of the pitching staff, junior Kevin Johnson is back and has a 2-1 record with a 3.13 ERA in four starts. Freshman John Kravetz has posted an impressive 2-0 record and 1.90 ERA in three starts and one relief appearance. Brandon Hohl is off to a slow start with a .227 batting average after hitting .311 in 2011 while Jordan Parr (.388) and Willie Argo (.341) lead the team in hitting so far.
FREAKY FRIDAYS The Salukis have won in their last at-bat in each of their last two Friday games. The Friday prior to that, SIU surrendered two runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth at Western Kentucky to tie the game then lost in 13 innings.
WEEKEND RECORD SIU is 10-2 in weekend games this season with both losses coming on a Friday. The Salukis have won eight consecutive weekend games including back-to-back sweeps of the Bright House Invitational and then Jacksonville State.
HOME SWEET HOME SIU is 4-1 in two home games this season after going 5-13 at home in 2011. SIU is in the midst of a 14-game homestand. This year the Salukis have 28 home games on the schedule, including Sunday's game against Illinois at Rent One Park, just down the road in Marion, Ill.
RBI TOTALS Entering the weekend, Chris Serritella has driven in a run in seven consecutive games and 11 of his last 12 games. He leads the MVC with 23 runs driven in in 16 games this season. Austin Montgomery is fifth in the league with 20 RBI. In 2010, his last healthy season, Serritella drove in 64 runs, second most in school history.
HITTING STREAK Donny Duschinsky enters the weekend with an 11-game hitting streak, the longest of his career. It is the longest hitting streak by a Saluki since Brock Harding's 12-game streak from March 16-April 6, 2011. Prior to that, the longest SIU hitting streak belonged to Chris Serritella who had a 20-game streak from April 6-May 14, 2010.
CLUTCH RELIEF SIU's bullpen has not allowed an earned run during the Salukis current four-game winning streak and five of its last six games.
