Friday, March 31
Carbondale, Ill.
6:30 p.m.
Southern Illinois University
13-14, 0
3
vs
2
Evansville
8-18, 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Evansville
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
7
0
Southern Illinois
0
0
1
0
0
0
2
0
X
3
5
0
Saluki Baseball opens MVC play with 3-2 win over Evansville
03/31/2017 | 9:20:00 | Baseball
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois baseball team scored twice in the bottom of the seventh for a comeback 3-2 win over Evansville in the MVC opener. After UE took a 2-0 lead in the second inning, Chad Whitmer and Ryan Netemeyer combined to throw seven shutout innings while the offense grinded out three runs to win the game.
Whitmer, who earned the win, was dominant. He scattered six hits in 7.2 innings while striking out four. Evansville opened the second inning with a single and a double, and both runs went on to score. After that, Whitmer put down 20 of the next 23 batters he faced.Â
"If you're going to win on Friday, you have to win with pitching and defense," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "You have to match them pitch for pitch. The story of the game is Whitmer and defense. Our defense outstanding. We made big plays all night."
With Whitmer controlling the game from the mound, Southern's offense battled back against UE ace Patrick Schnieders. The Salukis fought through long at-bats throughout the game, but Schnieders was able to finish most of them, striking out 12 batters in six innings. SIU got its first run back when Hunter Anderson led off the third inning with a walk and moved to third on Ryan Smith's opposite-field single. Connor Kopach brought in Anderson with a sacrifice fly.Â
"Our offense was frustrated all night," Henderson said. "First of all, their guy is pretty good. Also, our plate discipline wasn't very good. We swung out of the zone early, and then he would come back and execute great pitches late. We struck out 13 times (in the game); we have to clean that up. But at the end of the day, you have to grind out some ABs and find a way to score. If you grind it out and find a way to put the bat on the ball, good things will happen. We can't strike out 13 times, but that happens on Friday nights because of who you're facing."
Schnieders was pulled in the seventh inning at 99 pitches after a four-pitch walk to Logan Blackfan. With two outs, Anderson moved Blackfan to third with an opposite field single. Southern (13-14, 1-0 MVC) tied the game on a wild pitch and took the lead when Ryan Smith came through with the go-ahead RBI single.Â
"His ball was running in, and I got down in the count early," Smith said. "I knew he was going to keep it away and throw slow stuff, maybe catch the corner outside. I wanted to let the ball get deep, and I was lucky enough to put it through and get the run."
Whitmer handed the ball to closer Ryan Netemeyer after a two-out single in the eighth inning, and Netemeyer quickly ended the inning with a strikeout.
In the ninth inning, Evansville earned a leadoff single. After that, a deep fly ball from UE's Stewart Nelson was caught by SIU left fielder Greg Lambert on the warning track, and Lambert dropped the ball on the transfer. Purple Aces pinch runner Troy Beilsmith was caught between second and third on the catch and hustled back to first. But Nelson was on first, apparently thinking that Lambert had dropped the fly ball. Beilsmith was hung up between first and second, and SIU got the ball into the infield and tagged him out for the double play.Â
"It was bizarre," Henderson said. "That's not the double play we were looking for in that situation, but we'll take it."
Defensively, Southern Illinois made key plays all night. Perhaps SIU's biggest defensive inning came in the seventh. After a leadoff single, Ryan Sabo got the force out at second base on a sacrifice bunt attempt. Later in the inning, Will Farmer gunned down a UE runner trying to advance to third on a ground ball.Â
Netemeyer finished the game for his MVC-leading ninth save of the year. SIU won its Valley opener for the second-straight year, marking the first time since 2011 and 2012 that SiU has won back-to-back MVC openers. SIU came into the game having lost five of its last six games.
"We never quit. We never got down," Henderson said. "We've been looking forward to this game for a while, just to turn the page. Our intensity and energy level was probably the best it has been all year."
Southern Illinois will go for a series win over the Purple Aces on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Itchy Jones Stadium. The forecasted weather is 62 degrees and sunny at game time.Â
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Whitmer, who earned the win, was dominant. He scattered six hits in 7.2 innings while striking out four. Evansville opened the second inning with a single and a double, and both runs went on to score. After that, Whitmer put down 20 of the next 23 batters he faced.Â
"If you're going to win on Friday, you have to win with pitching and defense," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "You have to match them pitch for pitch. The story of the game is Whitmer and defense. Our defense outstanding. We made big plays all night."
With Whitmer controlling the game from the mound, Southern's offense battled back against UE ace Patrick Schnieders. The Salukis fought through long at-bats throughout the game, but Schnieders was able to finish most of them, striking out 12 batters in six innings. SIU got its first run back when Hunter Anderson led off the third inning with a walk and moved to third on Ryan Smith's opposite-field single. Connor Kopach brought in Anderson with a sacrifice fly.Â
"Our offense was frustrated all night," Henderson said. "First of all, their guy is pretty good. Also, our plate discipline wasn't very good. We swung out of the zone early, and then he would come back and execute great pitches late. We struck out 13 times (in the game); we have to clean that up. But at the end of the day, you have to grind out some ABs and find a way to score. If you grind it out and find a way to put the bat on the ball, good things will happen. We can't strike out 13 times, but that happens on Friday nights because of who you're facing."
Schnieders was pulled in the seventh inning at 99 pitches after a four-pitch walk to Logan Blackfan. With two outs, Anderson moved Blackfan to third with an opposite field single. Southern (13-14, 1-0 MVC) tied the game on a wild pitch and took the lead when Ryan Smith came through with the go-ahead RBI single.Â
"His ball was running in, and I got down in the count early," Smith said. "I knew he was going to keep it away and throw slow stuff, maybe catch the corner outside. I wanted to let the ball get deep, and I was lucky enough to put it through and get the run."
Whitmer handed the ball to closer Ryan Netemeyer after a two-out single in the eighth inning, and Netemeyer quickly ended the inning with a strikeout.
In the ninth inning, Evansville earned a leadoff single. After that, a deep fly ball from UE's Stewart Nelson was caught by SIU left fielder Greg Lambert on the warning track, and Lambert dropped the ball on the transfer. Purple Aces pinch runner Troy Beilsmith was caught between second and third on the catch and hustled back to first. But Nelson was on first, apparently thinking that Lambert had dropped the fly ball. Beilsmith was hung up between first and second, and SIU got the ball into the infield and tagged him out for the double play.Â
"It was bizarre," Henderson said. "That's not the double play we were looking for in that situation, but we'll take it."
Defensively, Southern Illinois made key plays all night. Perhaps SIU's biggest defensive inning came in the seventh. After a leadoff single, Ryan Sabo got the force out at second base on a sacrifice bunt attempt. Later in the inning, Will Farmer gunned down a UE runner trying to advance to third on a ground ball.Â
Netemeyer finished the game for his MVC-leading ninth save of the year. SIU won its Valley opener for the second-straight year, marking the first time since 2011 and 2012 that SiU has won back-to-back MVC openers. SIU came into the game having lost five of its last six games.
"We never quit. We never got down," Henderson said. "We've been looking forward to this game for a while, just to turn the page. Our intensity and energy level was probably the best it has been all year."
Southern Illinois will go for a series win over the Purple Aces on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Itchy Jones Stadium. The forecasted weather is 62 degrees and sunny at game time.Â
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Whitmer, Chad (2-2)
L: Brady, Ryan (0-2)
S: Netemeyer, Ryan (9)
Batting:
2B: Tanous, Andrew 1
RBI: Nelson, Stewart 1 ; Krob, Brendan 1
SF: Krob, Brendan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Tokarek, Travis 1 ; Tanous, Andrew 1
SB: Crews, Kenton 1
Batting:
RBI: Kopach, Connor 1 ; Smith, Ryan 1
SF: Kopach, Connor 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Blackfan, Logan 1 ; Anderson, Hunter 2
SB: Smith, Ryan 1
CS: Lambert, Greg 1 ; Smith, Ryan 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
cf/rf
AB
3
R
0
H
2
RBI
1
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
2
R
2
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
INF
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INF
/ Baseball
INF
/ Baseball
INF
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/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
RHP
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