Baseball denied a sweep with 8-4 loss to Bradley

Sunday, March 25

Carbondale, Ill.

1:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

14-10, 0

Bradley

11-9-1, 0

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Bradley	0	0	3	4	0	0	0	0	1	8	10	1
Southern Illinois	1	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	4	9	1

03/25/2012 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

March 25, 2012

Box Score

By Scott Gierman
SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. - After two straight comeback wins against Bradley, SIU's bid for a series sweep fell short on Sunday with an 8-4 loss to the Braves at Abe Martin Field. Southern Illinois (14-10, 2-1) could not come through with the big hit in the late innings as the Salukis stranded 12 runners, giving Bradley (11-9-1) its first conference win of the year.

Southern had runners on base with one out for the middle of the order in the sixth and eighth innings but failed to score in both instances.

"We had guys on, especially guys at the bottom of the order battled and got on," SIU Coach Ken Henderson said. "Jake Welch had three hits. The bottom of the order was on, but we just didn't get key hits in the middle of the lineup, and that's the story of the game."

SIU starter Nathan Dorris appeared to be in control of the game with SIU in front 2-0 after two innings. However, the Braves took a 3-2 lead in the third when their offense manufactured a three-run rally. Curtiss Bunch began the inning by drawing a walk. The ninth hitter in the order, Andrew Wasmund, followed with a double to left-center field. Chris Godinez drove in Bunch when he beat out a bouncing ball for an infield single. Wasmund and Godinez scored on a ground out and a sacrifice fly, respectively.

The momentum continued to swing in Bradley's favor in the fourth inning when two of the first three batters reached base, and Wasmund hit a three-run homer to extend the lead to 6-3. Wasmund entered the game with a .121 batting average and no extra-base hits in 10 games this season. Dorris allowed two more singles before departing with one out in the fourth. It was his shortest outing of the year.

"We were cruising the first two innings," Henderson said. "Then suddenly we walk the eight hole on four straight pitches then give up seven runs in an inning and a third so our hitters were battling uphill all day."

After starting the year 4-0, Dorris has taken the loss in each of his last two outings. He allowed seven runs, six of them earned, in three and a third innings on Sunday. He walked three and struck out three.

"The problem is command and feel," Henderson said. "It was either a ball or a belt high fastball down the middle, there's no in between. The first two innings he had great stuff. He always has great stuff, but at this level if you don't know where it's going, you're not going to get hitters out. We'll stay with him and try to figure it out."

Trailing 7-2, Southern struck back in the fourth inning with Nick Johnson's two-run homer to cut the deficit to 7-4. It was Johnson's second home run in as many days. He is now tied for the team lead with five.

That chased Bradley starter John Nasshan from the game. He allowed four runs off six hits in three innings, but couldn't stay in long enough to qualify for a win. Patrick Flanigan relieved Nasshan. Flanigan loaded the bases but escaped without any damage as the Salukis missed an opportunity to tighten the game. Flanigan stayed in for a scoreless fifth inning and took home his first win of the season.

The Braves bullpen shut down the Salukis with six shutout innings. The Dawgs managed just three hits in the final five innings of the game.

Southern Illinois' frustrations boiled over in the eighth inning. Trailing 7-4, Chris Serritella came to the plate with the bases loaded and only one out. After grounding into an inning ending double play, he expressed his frustration to the umpires regarding the previous pitches in the at-bat and was ejected.

The bullpen allowed Southern Illinois the opportunity to stay in the game. Sam Coonrod threw two and two-thirds innings without allowing a hit. Matt Murphy allowed one run in three innings of work. The only damage against him came on Jason Leblebijian's home run to lead off the ninth inning.

The Salukis took two of three from Bradley in the weekend series to open the Missouri Valley Conference season, however, they had hoped for more.

"If you look back on it, we won the series," Henderson said, "but you try to win every game, and we had a chance for the sweep. You try to sweep the series, but we didn't get it today, and it hurts. That's a good thing. Our kids are down. I want them to be down. They wanted to win, but we'll bounce back and get ready for Murray on Wednesday and Wichita on the weekend."

Southern will host Murray State Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Abe Martin Field in the final game of a 14-game homestand before heading to Wichita State for a three-game series beginning Friday, March 30.