Salukis roll to 16-7 win at Austin Peay

Tuesday, February 20

Clarksville, Tenn.

3 p.m.

Southern Illinois University

1-3

Austin Peay

3-1

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Southern Illinois	1	0	4	4	0	0	6	1	0	16	12	2
Austin Peay	0	0	2	1	0	1	3	0	0	7	8	1

02/20/2018 | 8:53:00 | Baseball

Box Score

By: By John Lock | SIUSalukis.com

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CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - The Southern Illinois baseball team exploded offensively for 16 runs and got its first win of the 2018 season with a 16-7 victory at Austin Peay (3-1) on Tuesday afternoon. SIU (1-3) had 4-run innings in the third and fourth innings and a 6-run frame in the seventh.

"I'm happy for our kids," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "We got a big win coming off a weekend when things didn't go our way. This is a tough place to win. We haven't won a ton of games here. Hopefully, we can get it rolling now."

Nikola Vasic got things going with a solo home run in the top of the first inning. He took a 1-2 pitch to straight-away center field for his first Division I home run.

Alex Lyon, a Tennessee native, had a flawless night offensively. He reached in all six plate appearances, going 4-for-4 with two walks. He hit a double and a grand slam and had 5 RBIs in the win. Freshman Grey Epps, who is from Clarksville, made a pair of sparkling defensive plays and recorded his first collegiate RBI with a bases-loaded walk in the seventh inning.

"Alex Lyon had a phenomenal night," Henderson said. "He's from here, and he went 4-for-4 with two walks. He was on base every single time. That's a pretty special night. And Grey Epps came back to his hometown and made two phenomenal plays on defense. One of those took a bad hop, and he had great hands; and he backhanded a ball and got the lead runner at second base on another play."

Starting pitcher Brad Harrison never lost the lead after Vasic gave him the early 1-0 cushion. Harrison went 5 innings and allowed just 4 hits and 3 runs. He earned his first collegiate win in his second career start.

"He was really good," Henderson said. "He settled in and gave us five really good innings. He threw the ball in the strike zone. That's something we need to have. In years past, we haven't had a mid-week pitcher give us great starts, so hopefully he can continue to do that."

The Salukis started the offensive outburst in the third inning. Epps, Vasic, and Lyon all drew walks, and all three scored. Connor Kopach scored Epps with an RBI single, and Logan Blackfan drove in Vasic and Kopach. Blackfan already has 9 RBIs through four games this season. Kenton Crawford, who went 2-for-4 in his second start of the season, drove in Lyon with a sacrifice fly.

Austin Peay answered with a 2-run homer in the bottom of the third, but Lyon hit a grand slam in the top of the fourth to put SIU up 9-2. Lyon's grand slam came against APSU reliever Josh Rye, who had allowed just 2 hits and no runs over 10 innings against SIU in 2017.

APSU got within 9-4 after single-run innings in the fourth and sixth, but SIU sent 12 men to the plate in the top of the seventh. Lyon singled and later scored at the start of the inning, but SIU had only that single run with two on and two outs. Then, six consecutive SIU batters drew walks to force in five more runs and put the game out of reach.

"We grinded out ABs, and that's what we have to do," Henderson said. "We competed and we grinded. We had a lot of walks, but that's because of great ABs. We fouled off pitches, and we extended at-bats. We didn't chase a lot of bad pitches; and it was a generous zone, so I'm proud of our guys adjusting to that. We've had good plate discipline all year."

Down the stretch, SIU turned to freshmen pitchers. Noah Farmer, Trey McDaniel and Nolan Johnson combined to throw 3.1 innings. The trio struck out seven batters and allowed just three hits and one run.

"The entire staff did a really good job in tough pitching conditions," Henderson said. "The wind was blowing straight out, and we kept them in the ballpark for the most part. All three of our freshmen that threw — McDaniel, Farmer and Johnson — were really good. They threw strikes,"

SIU travels to North Florida for a three-game series this weekend. The first two games will be streamed through ESPN3, and the series finale will be broadcast on Facebook Live.