Wednesday, May 24
Springfield, Mo.
6:40 p.m.
Southern Illinois University
27-29
1
vs
3
Wichita State
28-28
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
R
H
E
Wichita State
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
3
7
1
Southern Illinois
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
2
0
Salukis fall in extras to open MVC Tournament
05/24/2017 | 11:27:00 | Baseball
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - The Southern Illinois baseball team fell to Wichita State in 10 innings, 3-1, in the first round of the MVC Tournament on Wednesday night. SIU will play an elimination game at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday against the loser of the Illinois State vs. Missouri State game.Â
"It's a tough loss," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "We just couldn't get anything going offensively. That's the key to the game. We couldn't find a way to manufacture it. We certainly played well. We pitched our rear ends off and played our rear ends off. I'm proud of our effort. I'm proud of the way we played the game."
The Salukis (27-29) got an incredible performance from starting pitcher Chad Whitmer. The senior allowed seven earned runs in his start against WIchita (28-28) during the regular season. After that, he was outstanding, posting a 2.18 ERA in his last seven starts. Tonight, he went 8.1 innings and allowed just five hits and one run. He struck out six and increased his season total to 95 strikeouts. Since 2000, only P.J. Finigan (107 in 2005) has had more strikeouts in a season.Â
"This week of preparation, I was trying not to focus on how I wasn't great against them last time," Whitmer said. "After that Wichita game, I was good the rest of the season. I tried to carry that with me, and I think it worked."
Shocker starter Zach Lewis was just as outstanding. He faced the minimum through six innings before the Salukis got to him in the seventh. Connor Kopach led off the inning by being hit by pitch. He stole second--Southern's 100th stolen base of the year. Lewis made a wild pickoff attempt to second base, and Kopach scored all the way from second to tie the game.Â
Greg Lambert followed with his 25th double of the season, which set SIU's single-season doubles record. He moved to third on a groundout, and Nick Hutchins was hit by pitch and moved to second on a wild pitch. Both runs were stranded in scoring position.Â
Lewis was lifted, and the Shockers got out of the inning without further damage. Lewis struck out eight in 6.2 innings and allowed just two hits.Â
"Both starters were good. Both guys deserved to win," Henderson said. "(Lewis) got ahead of guys. He mixed speeds. He spotted up really well. We just couldn't get him solved."
The Salukis ended up striking out 16 times in the game, a season high. Eight came against Lewis, and eight came against Wichita's bulllpen, which pitched 3.1 scoreless innings. The Shockers won the game in the top of the 10th inning. A leadoff double moved to third with one out. With the infield in, a high chopper gave just enough time for the runner to beat the throw home. A two-out RBI single set the final score.Â
SIU plays an elimination game on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. against the loser of the Illinois State vs. Missouri State game, which started after 11 p.m. due to long games and two rain delays during the day. Michael Baird will start for SIU.Â
"We've been very resilient all year," Henderson said. "We can talk about this game all night, but it does us no good. Flush this one, turn the page and get ready to go; because we certainly didn't come here to go home after two days. Our guys have done a great job of that all year, and I have no doubts that we'll be ready to go tomorrow."
Â
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Sanburn (5-3)
L: Netemeyer, Ryan (1-2)
S: Hecht (7)
Batting:
2B: Boyer 2
3B: Schwanke 1
HR: Schwanke 1
RBI: Bohm 1 ; Schwanke 1 ; Ritter 1
SH: Jenista 1 ; Ritter 1 ; Jackson, A 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Vickers 1 ; Schwanke 1 ; Boyer 1
PO: Boyer 1
Batting:
2B: Lambert, Greg 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kopach, Connor 1
SB: Kopach, Connor 1
HBP: Kopach, Connor 1 ; Hutchins, Nick 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
1
H
0
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
0
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
RHP
/ Baseball
C
/ BaseballINF
/ BaseballINF/OF
/ Baseball
RHP
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