Baseball suffers 4-1 road loss to SEMO

Tuesday, April 10

Cape Girardeau, Mo.

5:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

18-15

Southeast Missouri

10-24

Southern Illinois

Southeast Missouri

04/10/2012 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

April 10, 2012

Box Score

By Scott Gierman
SIUSalukis.com

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - SIU never got its offense going in a 4-1 loss to Southeast Missouri State Tuesday evening at Capaha Field. SEMO (10-24) used four pitchers and held the Salukis (18-15) to a season low one run. With the loss, SIU fell to 2-6 in midweek games.

SEMO starter Dylan Lynn was credited with the win. He entered the game with a 6.08 ERA but allowed just one run off three hits in four innings of work to improve to 2-0 on the season.

Southern had a runner on base in each of the last five innings but only twice advanced a runner to second base. Those two instances were courtesy of a passed ball and a balk.

"This was the worst day we've had offensively," SIU Coach Ken Henderson said. "Our approaches were not good. Our discipline was not good. Everybody was just swinging as hard as they could with the wind blowing straight in."

SIU's potent offense has combined to score three runs in its last two games after scoring 33 runs in its previous three games. Henderson said the offense did not make it difficult for the Redhawks defense.

"We had 13 outs in the air and nine strikeouts. Only three times did we put it in play and make an infielder throw somebody out," Henderson said. "We didn't have any discipline."

Southern Illinois got a promising start out of Nathan Dorris who bounced back from his recent struggles to keep the Salukis in the game with a seven-inning effort. He allowed four runs, three of them earned, off eight hits and struck out a career-high nine batters while walking just one. It matched the longest outing of the first year Saluki's career.

Despite an improved performance, Dorris lost his third straight decision.

"It felt good to be out there," Dorris said. "My stuff felt good. It just wasn't our day. We need to do better as a team, and that's the bottom line. It really doesn't matter how I do. It just matters what the team does."

After allowing a run in each of the first two innings, Dorris did not allow an earned run again until surrendering a solo home run to Kenton Parmley with two outs in the seventh. That extended SEMO's lead to 4-1. It was the second extra-base hit Dorris allowed in a park that historically favors hitters.

"Dorris was much better," Henderson said, "but he still has to execute pitches in crucial situations. Two of those runs were with two outs. That's when you have to execute, but he was much better today so hopefully he can build off that."

Jordan Sivertsen provided SIU's only run of the game when he tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the second inning with his conference-leading eighth home run of the season. It was his 24^th career home run, tying him with Chris Serritella for seventh most in school history.

Jason Blum led off the second inning with a triple to right-center field and scored on a double steal with runners at the corners to give SEMO a 2-1 lead. It proved to be all the offense the Redhawks would need.

SEMO had taken a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on Kody Campbell's RBI single. It was the third single of the inning for the Redhawks.

The Redhawks bullpen combined for five scoreless innings. Tony Zerrusen and Will Spitzfaden each threw two innings. Ryan Prickett entered in the ninth with the leadoff man on first base and nobody out. He induced two ground balls, the first one for a double play, and earned his second save of the season.

Tyler Dray tossed a scoreless eighth inning in relief for SIU.

Following a day off on Wednesday, SIU will begin a three-day series at Dallas Baptist on Thursday evening. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Central Time.