Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Baseball hosts Eastern Illinois Tuesday at Abe Martin Field
03/19/2012 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
March 19, 2012
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois baseball team is hosting Eastern Illinois for one game on Tuesday, March 20 at 3 p.m. at Abe Martin Field. The Salukis will try to end a three-game losing streak before beginning conference play this weekend.
GAME INFORMATION
Date: Tuesday, March 20
Time: 3 p.m. Central Time
Location: Carbondale, Ill.
Site: Abe Martin Field
Radio: WFRX 1300-AM
Video: Streaming through Game Central
SIU Game Notes
EIU Game Notes
TUESDAY'S STARTER Pete Slavonic will make his second career collegiate start. Two weeks ago, in his first collegiate start, Slavonic pitched five innings and allowed three runs, but only one of them was earned. He retired 10 of the last 12 batters he faced and earned his first win of the season. Slavonic allowed one earned run in three relief innings against Illinois this past Friday.
NIU SERIES NOTES In one of the Salukis oldest rivalries, Southern Illinois leads the all-time series, 56-27-1. Eastern Illinois was the second game on the schedule in Abe Martin's first season in 1947. Southern has won two in a row and eight of the last 10 against the Panthers. The two schools have played each other exactly once a year since 2005 with SIU winning six of those seven games.
SCOUTING EIU Eastern replaced 12 lettermen from 2011's team, which finished 18-33 overall and seventh in the Ohio Valley Conference with a 9-12 record. Following a 1-0 loss to Northwestern on Friday, the Panthers have now lost seven of their last nine games to fall to 6-11 on the season. Tuesday's starter, Troy Barton, earned his lone victory on the season by tossing five and a third scoreless innings on the road against No. 14 Louisville. The pitching has been solid for the Panthers, who boast a pitching staff featuring four starters will an ERA under 3.00. However, Eastern is hitting just .237 as a team. Ryan Dineen and Jacob Reese are both hitting over .350, but they are the only two players on the team over .300.
GETTING BACK ON TRACK Southern Illinois has lost three in a row, the team's longest losing streak since a three-game skid from April 17-19, 2011. The last time the Salukis had a losing streak of more than three games was an nine-game slide from March 9-20, 2011. The last game of that losing streak was against Illinois, and the streak ended with a win against Eastern Illinois.
TOP HITTERS Southern's lineup includes two of the top three hitters in the Missouri Valley Conference. Chris Serritella leads the conference with a .415 average and 34 hits, while Austin Montgomery is third in the league with a .395 average and tied for second in hits with 32.
ERRORS SIU has not yet played a game without committing an error and has committed at least two errors in each of its last 11 games. The Salukis have five infielders who have committed at least five errors in the first 20 games of the sason. With 50 errors on the year, Southern has double the amount of errors of any other team in the MVC. Those 50 errors have led to 37 unearned runs.
HITTING STREAK Donny Duschinsky finished the weekend with a 15-game hitting streak, the longest of his career. It is the longest hitting streak by a Saluki since Chris Serritella's 20-game streak from April 6-May 14, 2010. Duschinsky is hitting .383 (23-for-60) during the hitting streak.
LOOKING AHEAD Southern begins the conference schedule on Friday with a threegame series against Bradley at Abe Martin Field. In 2011, SIU entered the conference schedule with an 8-19 record.
ALL-TIME AVERAGE With his hot start this season, Chris Serritella is hitting .415 through the first 20 games this season. This has raised the redshirt junior's career average to .364 and leaves him tied with Mike Russell for sixth place on the school's all-time list. Current Dodger Jerry Hairston Jr. is one spot below Serritella with a .360 average.
JORDAN'S REJUVENATION Jordan Sivertsen broke out of an 0-for-12 slump and hit 6-for-15 (.400) this weekend, including a game-winning two-run double on Friday against NIU. Sivertsen recorded multiple hits in two of the Dawgs four games over the weekend. The 2011 Second Team All-MVC outfielder has also cut down on the strikeouts of late. He struck out just once in four games this weekend.
PICKING THEIR SPOTS Southern Illinois enters the game with only 18 stolen base attempts on the season, the least in the MVC. However, SIU has 15 stolen bases and a success rate of .833, the second highest in the conference.
DON'T LEAVE ME HANGING The Salukis hitters have stranded 30 runners over their last three games. In two of those games the Dawgs left the bases loaded in the first inning. SIU left the bases loaded without scoring in the inning twice in Sunday's game against Illinois.
