Salukis even series against Memphis in 5-3 win

Friday, March 25

Carbondale, Ill.

4:30 PM

Southern Illinois University

13-8-1

Memphis

9-13

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

03/25/2016 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

March 25, 2016

Box Score

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois scored three runs in the fifth inning and held-off a late charge from Memphis in a 5-3 victory on Friday. Freshman Jared Schmidt went 2-for-3 with an RBI in his first career start at third base.

"He has been swinging the bat very well lately," head coach Ken Henderson said. "He had a good day for us. He was aggressive and I was not surprised by his performance. He is going to be a nice player. He has a lot of tools, he just needs to get more experience."

The Salukis (13-8-1) found themselves in a hole early, after falling behind 1-0 in the second inning to the Tigers (9-13). Southern tied the game in the third inning with some two-out offense. Will Farmer singled for his first hit of the game and scored on an RBI double from Connor Kopach.

It was in the fifth inning that Southern strung together some offense, scoring three runs for a 4-1 advantage. Three-straight singles from Nick Hutchins, Taylor Martin, and Schmidt to start the inning gave SIU its first lead of the series and Schmidt's first-career RBI. A sacrifice bunt from Farmer setup Kopach for his second RBI of the game on a groundball out. With a runner on third and two outs, Dyllin Mucha caught the Tiger defense off-balance with an RBI bunt single.

Things would get shaky in the sixth inning though for the Salukis, when starting pitcher Chad Whitmer found himself in a jam. After a Memphis run made it a 4-2 game, the Tigers loaded the bases with no outs. The RHP was able to minimize the damage, as the Tigers were only able to score one more run to make it a 4-3 SIU lead. Whitmer's day was over after six innings, allowing three runs on five hits with six strikeouts.

Holding on to a one-run lead in the eighth inning, Jake Hand hit a triple after Memphis' center fielder could not make a play on a ball hit at him. Southern took advantage and plated the run on a sacrifice fly by Greg Lambert to make it a 5-3 game.

Ryan Netemeyer entered the game in the ninth inning for Southern, trying to close out the victory for his fifth save of the season. Memphis did not make it easy, getting a runner to second after a walk and a wild pitch. Netemeyer closed the door on the Tiger rally, getting the final out on a 5-4-6-5 play.

The bottom half of Southern's lineup provided the offensive punch in the win over the Tigers. The last four batters in the lineup combined for six of SIU's 10 hits.

"We had four hits between our eight and nine hole hitters," Henderson said. We haven't done that all year and that was huge for us today."

The Salukis will go for the series win tomorrow afternoon, when Michael Baird takes the mound at Itchy Jones Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.