Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Baseball to close out homestand Wednesday against Murray State
03/27/2012 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
March 27, 2012
By Scott Gierman
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois baseball team will complete a 14-game homestand with a 3 p.m. game against Murray State Wednesday at Abe Martin Field. It will be the first of two meetings with Murray State for SIU, who took two out of three games against Bradley this weekend in a series to open the Missouri Valley Conference season.
GAME INFORMATION
Date: Wednesday, March 28
Time: 3 p.m. CDT
Location: Carbondale, Ill.
Site: Abe Martin Field
Radio: WRFX 1300-AM and streaming live through Game Central
WEDNESDAY'S STARTER
Sophomore Pete Slavonic will make his third start of the season. He has surrendered a single earned run in each of his first two starts. In his last outing, Slavonic lasted a career best six innings but took the loss against Eastern Illinois. Including four relief appearances, he has a 1-1 record and a 2.00 ERA in 2012. In his two starts, he has a 1.64 ERA.
MURRAY STATE SERIES NOTES
SIU has dominated the all-time series with a 42-14 record since the two teams first met in 1974. Southern Illinois has won nine of the last 12 games against Murray State but split the two-game season series the last two years with each team winning at home and losing on the road. The two teams have played each other at least once annually since 1980 with the exception of 1996 when their scheduled game was rained out.
SCOUTING THE THOROUGHBREDS
Murray State is 13-12 on the season. The Thoroughbreds dropped two out of three at home against Morehead State to open Ohio Valley Conference play this past weekend. Murray State returns 20 letterwinners from last year's team, which finished 19-32 and seventh in the OVC with a 7-12 record. Offensively Murray State is lead by Ty Stetson, who is hitting .356, and former John A. Logan first baseman Mike Kozlowski, who is hitting .353. The Breds have a team ERA of 5.08. Wednesday's starter Alex Gordon, a junior from Carmel, Ind., will make his first start with the team. He is 1-2 with a 3.29 ERA in 13.2 relief innings spread over six appearances.
50 WINS
With a win in Wednesday's game, Ken Henderson would record his 50th career victory as a head coach. The Salukis are 49-52 (13-11 in the MVC) all-time with Henderson as head coach. Henderson was named head coach this past summer after spending the 2011 season as the interim head coach. He also guided the Salukis to a 12-8 record in 20 games as interim head coach in 1994 following the midseason departure of head coach Sam Riggleman.
LOOKING AHEAD
Southern will be back on the road for the first time since February for a three-game series at Wichita State this weekend. On Tuesday, April 3, the Salukis will visit Murray State for a 3 p.m. game. SIU's next home games will be a three game series against Evansville April 6-8.
