SIU clinches Stetson series with 7-0 win on Saturday

Saturday, February 18

DeLand, Fla.

1 p.m.

Southern Illinois University

2-0

Stetson

0-2

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Southern Illinois	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	3	3	7	11	0
Stetson	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1

02/18/2017 | 4:50:00 | Baseball

Box Score

By: By John Lock | SIUSalukis.com

DeLAND, Fla. - The Southern Illinois baseball team beat Stetson 7-0 on Saturday afternoon and clinched a season-opening series. Michael Baird and Brad Harrison combined for a three-hit shutout, and Southern's offense pounced on Stetson's bullpen to turn a pitching duel into a rout.

"That's about as clean as it gets for this time of year," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "When you pitch like that and play defense like that, you're going to win a lot of games."

SIU starter Michael Baird, the consensus Preseason MVC Pitcher of the Year, lived up the hype in his first start of the season. Through five innings, he allowed only a two-out flare single in the third inning. He pitched around a walk in the sixth before Stetson got two solid singles in the seventh. He had six strikeouts in 6.2 scoreless innings.

"Michael Baird was as good as he's ever been," Henderson said. "He was in total control all day. I knew Michael Baird was going to be good today because he's been game day mode since Wednesday. We talk about his focus and how locked in he is all the time."

Stetson starter Jack Perkins nearly matched Baird pitch for pitch. He started the game with five scoreless innings before Southern (2-0) could get anything going. Connor Kopach started the second with a single and stole second. After a Ryan Smith walk, Greg Lambert came through with a one-out RBI single to give SIU a 1-0 lead.

"You're trying to get one," Henderson said. "Lambert had a great day. He swung it well. Any time you can get a lead in a pitchers' duel, it's big. With Baird on the bump, you feel pretty good about it. We had some good ABs, and we got some big two-strike hits in the eighth and ninth innings. Guys really got tough in those situations."

After Perkins left after seven innings, SIU pounced on the Hatters' bullpen. The Salukis scored three in the eighth and three more in the ninth. Lambert drove in SIU's second run of the game in the eighth, and Nick Hutchins followed with a two-run single. Drew Curtis started the ninth with a double and was driven home by Will Farmer. Logan Blackfan put the game out of reach with a two-out, two-run single.

"I like that we expanded the lead," Henderson said. "We didn't have a lot of success early, but late in the game we expanded the lead. We pushed it to 4-0 and then expanded it again. Great job all the way around."

Brad Harrison got the final seven outs in his first career appearance to earn his first career save. He relieved Baird in the seventh with SIU leading 1-0. Stetson (0-2) had two on with one out, but Harrison got a huge strikeout to end the threat. He finished the game without allowing a hit.

"Kudos to Brad Harrison," Henderson said. "It's his first collegiate outing and he comes in with the tying run on base, and he gets a huge strikeout to get us out of it. Then he throws two more innings after that."

Southern Illinois will go for the series sweep tomorrow at 11 a.m. CT. Joey Marciano will take the mound for the Salukis.

"You play them one day at a time," Henderson said. "We have Marciano on the mound, and we'll come out and compete. Hopefully, we come out with another win. It's not about sweeping, it's about each individual game. So we will go out tomorrow and try to win another ballgame."