Baseball drops home opener, 14-5, to Middle Tennessee

Tuesday, March 6

Carbondale, Ill.

2:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

7-5

Middle Tennessee

8-4

Middle Tennessee

Southern Illinois

03/06/2012 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

March 6, 2012

Box Score | Photo Gallery

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois dropped its home opener, 14-5, to Middle Tennessee State Tuesday afternoon at Abe Martin Field. The loss snapped the Salukis' three-game winning streak.

Middle Tennessee (8-4) broke a 4-4 tie with a six-run outburst against Matt Murphy in the sixth inning to make it a 10-4 game and plated four more runs against the SIU (7-5) bullpen to rout the Dawgs.

Murphy took the loss, his second of the season. Meanwhile, the Blue Raiders bullpen surrendered just one run off three hits in five innings of work. Paul Mittura pitched two scoreless innings and earned the win.

"We had climbed back to tie it at 4-4 and went right back out and give up a six-spot," SIU Coach Ken Henderson said. "Then we ask our hitters to overcome that again. We've done that a few times, but we can't keep doing that. I thought overall we swung it decent, and then all of a sudden it's 10-4, and it's tough to hit in that situation. The reality is, you take a different approach than you would in a one- or two-run game."

With the score tied, 4-4, Murphy had pitched a perfect fifth inning before running into trouble in the sixth. He allowed three singles and a hit batsman before recording an out in the inning. With two runs in already, Murphy allowed back-to-back bases loaded singles to Ryan Ford and Hank LaRue. LaRue's single scored two and knocked Murphy out of the game. Aaron Snyder entered for SIU and allowed two more runs on Ethan Williams' sacrifice fly and Justin Guidry's RBI single.

SIU took a 2-0 first inning lead when Austin Montgomery singled with runners on the corners, and Nick Johnson followed with a sacrifice fly to left field.

Making his first collegiate start, Sam Coonrod allowed just two singles in his first three innings before surrendering a three-run home run to Dalton Henzman and then another unearned run in the fourth inning to give the Blue Raiders a 4-2 lead. It would be Coonrod's final inning of the game.

"I thought Coonrod did a pretty good job," Henderson said. "Even in the inning they got four runs, he did a pretty good job there, but he's a guy who's used to throwing an inning or two at a time, and now all of a sudden you ask him to go four or five innings, and his pitch count gets up. But I think he did a good job and he competed well for us."

The Salukis were able to rally back from a 4-2 deficit in the fifth inning to tie the game on Chris Serritella's RBI single. An additional run scored on the play thanks to an errant throw by MT right fielder Trent Miller. However, the SIU offense could not mound another comeback late in the game after numerous Blue Raider rallies.

"Our hitters did a good job early on," Henderson said. "We were scoring runs, we were getting a lot of runners and getting excitement. I think we would've scored more runs, but after a while, you've seen that before, and (giving up big innings) just gets demoralizing."

Middle Tennessee State outscored SIU 10-1 in the final four innings of the game.

Lead-off man Jake Welch recorded a career-high four hits in the game as he went four-for-four before Henderson emptied his bench with four pinch hitters in the final two innings.

SIU is 7-2 in weekend games, having won all three weekend series. However, the Salukis midweek pitchers have struggled as the Dawgs are 0-3 in midweek games.

"We can't go with five or six pitchers all year long," Henderson said. "Guys are getting opportunities and not taking advantage of it. But (Middle Tennessee) is a good ballclub, and when you throw stuff belt high or you're walking guys or hitting guys, you're not going to win games.

The Salukis will conclude the two-game series with the Blue Raiders on Wednesday with another 2 p.m. game. Pete Slavonic will start for SIU against Nathan Foriest for Middle Tennessee.