Salukis drop opener at ULM in extras

Friday, February 24

Monroe, La.

6 p.m.

Southern Illinois University

3-2

Louisiana Monroe

2-3

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Southern Illinois	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	3	9	2
ULM	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	4	11	1

02/24/2017 | 10:32:00 | Baseball

Box Score

By: By John Lock | SIUSalukis.com

MONROE, La. - The Southern Illinois baseball team dropped a 4-3 heartbreaker in 11 innings in the series opener at Louisiana Monroe on Friday night at Warhawk Field. SIU (3-2) rallied from a late two-run deficit to take the lead, but ULM (2-3) tied the game in the ninth and walked off in the bottom of the 11th inning.

"We didn't play well enough to win," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "We battled; we competed; we gave ourselves a chance and probably should have won the ballgame; but to be honest, we made way too many mistakes to beat a decent team on the road."

Both starting pitchers were outstanding. SIU starter Chad Whitmer posted his second-straight quality start to open the season, allowing two runs (one earned) in six innings. Monroe starter Josh Leone--who only allowed one hit in four innings at Dallas Baptist last Friday--was perfect after three innings and allowed only two hits through six innings.

"Both guys were throwing well. Both guys pounded the zone," Henderson said. "Whitmer gave us a chance to win the ballgame. He gave up one earned run in six innings. He was good again."

Trailing 2-0, Southern Illinois finally got to Leone in the seventh inning. Ryan Smith led off with a single, and Greg Lambert followed with a double. After SIU missed a chance with a pop out, Nick Hutchins hit a two-run triple to deep center to tie the game.

"Great AB by Nick Hutchins. We had a chance to get back in the game right there, and we didn't execute," Henderson said. "He did a great job coming in and picking up a teammate. That's something we did last week. There weren't many offensive highlights, but that certainly was one of them."

Drew Curtis followed Hutchins hit by beating out an infield single, allowing Hutchins to score and give SIU the lead. Brad Harrison pitched a scoreless seventh for SIU; and after he got into trouble in the eight inning, Jacob WIlliams got a big double-play ball to send SIU to the ninth with a 3-2 lead.

Southern missed a chance to expand the lead in the top of the ninth. After opening the inning with a walk and single to put runner on first and third with no outs, SIU struck out three-straight at-bats against ULM sidearmer Anthony Herrera.

"We need to execute better on offense," Henderson said. "That's the big thing. We should have scored four or five more runs without getting a base hit. We were 0-for-3 in sac fly situations with three strikeouts. We didn't move runners. To me, that's the difference in the ballgame."

Ryan Netemeyer pounded the zone in the ninth, but a leadoff bloop single scored on a one-out double by Nathan Reynolds. SIU put runners in scoring position in the 10th and 11th innings but couldn't score them.

"We'll be good on offense. We have good hitters. We're not swinging it like we're capable of swinging it, but we will. We will stay after it, and it will all work out," Henderson said.

Mitch Townsend pitched a perfect 10th before allowing an unearned run in the 11th on Blake Buckman's walk-off single. After sweeping on opening weekend, SIU has dropped two straight to fall to 3-2 on the season-opening eight-game road swing. The Salukis have a chacne to even the series against the Warhawks tomorrow at 2 p.m. with Michael Baird on the mound.

"That's an extremely tough loss, but you don't have time to stress about it," Henderson said. "You have to get back and be ready to go tomorrow. We're five games in, and we have 51 more to go. We'll learn from it and clean up the things we need to do better."