Southern drops season opener, 5-2, at McNeese State

Friday, February 19

Lake Charles, La.

6:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

0-1

McNeese State

1-0

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

02/19/2016 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

Feb. 19, 2016

Box Score

LAKE CHARLES, La. - A pair of costly errors in the first inning proved to be the downfall for Southern Illinois, as the Salukis (0-1) dropped the season opener to McNeese State, 5-2, Friday night in Lake Charles, La.

It was a long opening frame for SIU, as they allowed the Cowboys (1-0) to jump out to an early 3-0 lead. Two throwing errors against the Salukis gave the home team the early momentum.

After a tough first inning, Joey Marciano settled down and held the Cowboys scoreless over his final 2.2 innings of work. Marciano finished the night after 3.2 innings pitched, allowing three runs with five strikeouts.

"The first inning was a disaster," head coach Ken Henderson said. "Joey is going to be awfully good for us. It was the first game of the year and I think that everyone was excited to play. We just were not ourselves. We didn't play today like we have practiced for the last six months."

Southern finally got on the board in the fifth inning, scoring a pair of runs to make it a 3-2 game. A single from Ryan Sabo and walks to Dyllin Mucha and Will Farmer loaded the bases for SIU with two outs. With a chance to get the offense rolling, Greg Lambert plated two runs with a hard hit single into center field, giving the sophomore his first two RBIs of the year.

It would be as close as Southern would get to the Cowboys, as the home team would add runs in the fifth and seventh innings to extend their lead to 5-2, before putting away the game in the ninth.

"We had some chances to score and we hit some balls pretty hard tonight," Henderson said. "Their third baseman saved them a couple of runs, but I thought our offense got better as the game went on. We are going to be alright and we are going to score some runs. I like our offense and we really have some guys that can hit."

Jacob Williams was a bright spot out of the bullpen, pitching three innings while giving up one run. Williams entered the game with the bases loaded and no outs in the fifth inning, and was able to get out of the jam, allowing only one run to score.

"Jacob was extremely good tonight," said Henderson. "He did a good job and inherited a crucial situation in the fifth. He threw three really good innings."

Southern will look to even the series on Saturday, as Chad Whitmer takes the mound against the Cowboys. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. at Cowboy Diamond.