Sunday, March 18
Carbondale, Ill.
1 p.m.
Southern Illinois University
9-11
2
vs
6
Illinois
11-5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Illinois
1
0
0
0
4
0
0
0
1
6
9
2
Southern Illinois
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
3
1
SIU falls 6-2, drops series to No. 24 Illinois
03/18/2018 | 8:28:00 | Baseball
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Illinois scored four runs in the fifth inning to earn a 6-2 win over Southern Illinois on Sunday afternoon at Itchy Jones Stadium. The No. 24-ranked Illini won the series, 2-1.
Illinois (11-5) scored in the top of the first, but SIU (9-11) answered with two runs in the bottom half to take a 2-1 lead. Southern had a runner on second with no outs in the third inning and two runners in scoring position with one out in the fourth, but the Salukis came away empty both times.
"The game was decided early," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "We had great opportunities to score in the third and fourth innings, and we didn't get any runs out of it. When you're playing a good club, you have to take advantage of those opportunities. That changed the momentum of the ballgame. We had everything going our way. We were playing well."
In the fourth, Illinois head coach Dan Hartleb was ejected after a brief argument of a hit-by-pitch. The ejection seemed to invigorate Illinois. Brad Harrison limited the Illini to one hit in the first four innings, but they scored four runs on five hits in their next at-bat after the ejection to take a 5-2 lead.
Outside of the fifth inning, Harrison allowed just two hits. He retired 10 in a row at one point and pitched into the eighth inning against a ranked Illinois team averaging 10 hits and seven runs per game.
"Beyond that inning, he was outstanding," Henderson said of Harrison. "He pitched into the eighth and gave up only seven hits to a club that's good offensively. He just didn't execute in the one inning."
Illinois starter Ty Weber got out of the jams in the third and fourth innings and cruised from there. He allowed just three hits in the game and retired 11 in a row to end his outing.
"He executed some pitches and threw some sliders with runners in scoring position," Henderson said. "We swung at pitches out of the zone. We have to grind harder when we have chances to score."
SIU travels to SIU Edwardsville on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m. Next weekend, Southern Illinois welcomes UC Irvine, which made the College World Series in 2014, to Carbondale for a three-game series.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Weber, Ty (3-1)
L: Harrison, Brad (3-1)
Batting:
2B: Taylor, Zac 1 ; Korte, Jeff 1
3B: Massey, Michael 1
RBI: Taylor, Zac 1 ; Troike, Ben 1 ; Yalowitz, Jack 2 ; Michalak, Michael 1 ; Van Scoy, Grant 1
SH: Van Scoy, Grant 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Taylor, Zac 2 ; Turchin, Doran 1 ; Korte, Jeff 2 ; Michalak, Michael 1
SB: Taylor, Zac 1 ; Spillane, Bren 1 ; Turchin, Doran 2
HBP: Spillane, Bren 1
Batting:
RBI: Lyon, Alex 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Vasic, Nikola 1 ; Kopach, Connor 1
SB: Kopach, Connor 1 ; Lyon, Alex 2 ; Fairfield, Mitch 1
HBP: Fairfield, Mitch 1
Game Leaders
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
0
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
OF/LHP
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