SIU falls to Murray State in another mid-week shootout, 13-10

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CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois baseball team lost a 13-10 shootout to Murray State on Wednesday evening at Itchy Jones Stadium. The Racers (12-8) swept the home-and-home mid-week season series between the schools.

Murray State recorded 16 hits in the game. Five came in a six-run third inning and five more came in its five-run sixth. Ten of the Racers' 13 runs came with two outs.

"They're a good hitting ball club, one of the better offensive clubs we will play all year," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "You have to execute pitches and work ahead, and we didn't do that. When you give up seven or eight free passes and leave balls in the middle of the plate, you're going to give up a lot of runs."

SIU starter Allen Montgomery started strong. He mowed down the Racers the first time through the order; the only base runner reached on an error. But when the order turned over with two outs in the third inning, Murray recorded five-straight hits, capped by a grand slam to give MSU a 6-3 lead.

The Salukis bounced back with its own two-out rally in the bottom half. Nick Hutchins and Jake Hand got on to start the inning. Dyllin Mucha scored Hutchins on a two-out single, and Connor Kopach followed with a two-run double. Murray State regained the lead with a run in the fifth, and again Southern scored in the bottom half to tie the game, 7-7.

In all, the Salukis piled up a season-high 17 hits, and five starters had multi-hit games. Everybody in the lineup had at least one hit and scored at least one run.

"You take a couple positives out of it. The No. 1 positive was I saw much better swings tonight," Henderson said. "We had 17 hits, but we took better swings, too. I saw some guys doing things that we've really been working hard on the last few weeks. We stayed inside balls, and we had a lot better discipline. We didn't chase as many of those sliders and change-ups out of the zone. Our plate discipline, our swings and our approaches were much better tonight than they've been probably all year. That's a huge step in the right direction."

Murray blew the game open with a five-run sixth inning. Three of MSU's five hits in the inning came with two outs, including a two-run homer. Southern used six pitchers in the loss.

"We couldn't use some guys because of the four games last weekend; but when other guys get opportunities, they have to step up," Henderson said of his pitching staff. "We have five or six guys that are doing a really nice job, but we can't make it through the year with five or six guys."

SIU fell to 1-4 in its mid-week games this year. In the four mid-week losses, Southern allowed 54 runs and has a 12.00 ERA. In the other 17 games, SIU has allowed only 64 runs and has a 2.44 ERA.

"This game all comes down to pitching, and we didn't pitch well. But we're going to run Whitmer out there on Friday, so it's a different story," Henderson said.

Southern Illinois faces Jacksonville State for a three-game series this weekend at Itchy Jones Stadium. The first game of the series starts at 1 p.m. on Friday. The program's annual fish fry and memorabilia auction starts at 5 p.m. CT in the Carbondale Civic Center.

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Team Stats

Logan Blackfan

Jake Hand

Dyllin Mucha

Connor Kopach

Players Mentioned

Jake Hand

Nick Hutchins

Connor Kopach

Allen Montgomery

Dyllin Mucha

Players Mentioned

Jake Hand

Nick Hutchins

Connor Kopach

Allen Montgomery

Dyllin Mucha

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