Saturday, March 17
Carbondale, Ill.
12 p.m.
Southern Illinois University
8-10
6
vs
16
Illinois
10-4
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Illinois
0
0
1
3
0
4
7
1
0
16
19
1
Southern Illinois
0
0
0
1
4
0
0
1
0
6
12
0
Salukis split doubleheader with No. 24 Illinois
03/17/2018 | 8:25:00 | Baseball
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois baseball team split a doubleheader with No. 24 Illinois on Saturday at Itchy Jones Stadium. After Illinois (10-5) dominated the first game, 16-6, the Salukis (9-10) rallied from a 4-1 deficit to win the second game, 5-4.
"Doubleheaders are hard because so often the first game dictates the second game," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "We didn't let that happen today."
In the opener, Illinois jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but SIU rallied for five unanswered runs to take a 5-4 lead. After that, the Illini scored four runs in the sixth and seven more in the seventh to blow the game open. Illinois piled up 19 hits and 16 runs. UI first baseman Bren Spillane hit three home runs.
"We got blown out, but we didn't play bad at all," Henderson said. "We had 12 hits. We only struck out five times. We only walked three guys. You have to give Illinois credit that game. They hit everything we threw up there. They did a phenomenal job all day of hitting with two strikes. That was the difference in game one, but we didn't play poorly. There was nothing to feel bad about."
In the second game, Illinois led off with a double and pushed the run home to take an early 1-0 lead. SIU answered the run in the bottom half, and the game stayed tied into the fifth inning. Illinois scored twice in the fifth inning and once in the sixth to take a 4-1 lead, but SIU scored twice in the sixth to cut the lead to 4-3.
"I'm proud of our guys for bouncing back," Henderson said. "We challenged them between games to show how tough they are and what their make-up is. I think they did."
Jamison Steege scattered nine hits over 7.1 innings, allowing four runs and walking only one. He took a line drive off the knee cap and stayed in the game to eclipse 100 pitches. With SIU trailing 4-3 in the seventh, Addison Fugitt took a 1-out walk, and Connor Kopach followed with the game-winning two-run homer to give SIU the 5-4 lead, which stood up as the final score.
Perhaps most impressively, the Salukis pulled the comeback win over an Illinois team that was 9-1 in its last 10, and Kopach's home run came against Illini reliever Ryan Thompson, who came into the game 4-0 with an 0.79 ERA.
"Jamison did a great job of keeping us in the ball game, and we found a way to score a couple runs," Henderson said. "Kopach had a big day with a couple big swings of the bat. It was a good day and a great bounce back win."
When SIU took the lead, Trey McDaniel came in to pitch with one out in the eighth inning. Illinois put the tying run on the bases, but McDaniel induced a 5-3 double play. Grey Epps made the play at third base, and Logan Blackfan made a huge dig on the throw to first base to secure the lead.
Ryan Netemeyer nailed down the save, allowing only a two-out flare single. After starting the year 0-for-2 on save opportunities—including a blown save on Tuesday at Arkansas State, Netemeyer was sharp and recorded his 29th career save, one away from tying the SIU career record.
"I'm unbelievably proud of Ryan Netemeyer," Henderson said. "You can't say enough about what he did. On Tuesday, we have a save situation, and he has a bad outing. I felt bad for him because he's been so good for us for four years. We didn't talk about it. We didn't discuss it because we have all the faith in the world in him. He's pretty special. We knew he would bounce back, and it's good to see him do that in the ninth."
SIU beat a ranked opponent for the first time since sweeping Tennessee Tech last year at Itchy Jones Stadium. Since the start of last season, SIU is 4-4 against ranked teams at Itchy Jones Stadium after the split.
Southern was out-hit 11-5 in the second game but overcame it by drawing nine walks. After striking out at least 10 times in four of the last five games, SIU struck out only five times in each game today while drawing 11 walks. SIU pitching only gave away five walks in the two games combined, and Southern's defense played error-free and turned four double plays, including three in the game two win.
"I'm really proud of our hitters today," Henderson said. "We've been striking out too much, and we only struck out 10 times in 18 innings today. We battled harder. We didn't chase bad pitches. We competed at the plate. That's a start. We have to take better swings up and down the lineup, but we competed extremely well."
SIU goes for the series win on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m., and Brad Harrison will make his fifth start of the season for SIU.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Snarskis, Quinn (2-0)
L: Baird, Michael (1-2)
S: Douglas, Jackson (1)
Batting:
2B: Yalowitz, Jack 1 ; Massey, Michael 1 ; Turchin, Doran 1 ; Michalak, Michael 1
HR: Spillane, Bren 3
RBI: Taylor, Zac 3 ; Troike, Ben 4 ; Spillane, Bren 6 ; Korte, Jeff 2 ; Van Scoy, Grant 1
SF: Taylor, Zac 1 ; Korte, Jeff 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Taylor, Zac 1 ; Troike, Ben 1 ; Yalowitz, Jack 1 ; Spillane, Bren 3 ; Massey, Michael 2 ; Turchin, Doran 2 ; Korte, Jeff 3 ; Michalak, Michael 2 ; Van Scoy, Grant 1
HBP: Taylor, Zac 1
Batting:
2B: Blackfan, Logan 1
RBI: Vasic, Nikola 1 ; Lyon, Alex 1 ; Fairfield, Mitch 1
SF: Fairfield, Mitch 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Vasic, Nikola 1 ; Blackfan, Logan 1 ; Lyon, Alex 1 ; Ulick, Austin 1 ; Epps, Grey 1 ; Crawford, Kenton 1
SB: Vasic, Nikola 1 ; Lyon, Alex 1
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
1
H
3
RBI
1
AB
3
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
INF
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RHP
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