Southern Illinois University
20-19
Tennessee Tech
33-5
No. 21 TTU sweeps SIU
04/21/2018 | 11:22:00 | Baseball
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - No. 21 Tennessee Tech swept the series from Southern Illinois with 11-4 and 18-5 wins in a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Bush Stadium. The Golden Eagles (34-5) ran their active winning streak to 25 games.
"It all came down to our inability to throw strikes and grind out ABs," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "We struck out 27 times in the doubleheader, and we gave up 22 free passes. That's the ballgame. You're not going to beat anybody doing that, certainly not a good club."
In the opening game of the doubleheader, SIU issued three walks in the second inning, and Tech made them hurt by scoring four runs on just two hits. The Golden Eagles pushed the lead to 8-1 in the fourth inning. SIU got within 8-3 after a two-run home run by Logan Blackfan—his second home run of the game. Addison Fugitt would add a solo home run later in the game, but SIU issued two walks and hit a batter in bases-loaded situations to set the final score at 11-4.
In the second game, Tennessee Tech again jumped out to a quick lead, this time a 2-0 lead after two innings. SIU climbed back to tie the game with single runs in the third and fourth innings. Connor Kopach drove in a run in the third, and Alex Lyon homered in the fourth to tie the game, 2-2.
Tech immediately answered with four runs in the bottom of the fourth. Kopach doubled in another run to bring SIU within 6-3, but TTU scored seven unanswered runs to put the game away. With the score 13-5 going into TTU's last at-bat, the Eagles hit three home runs and scored five more runs in the bottom of the eighth to put the finishing touches on their sweep.
Tennessee Tech extended its OVC-record winning streak to 25 games, which is nine shy of the NCAA record.
Southern Illinois hosts Southeast Missouri on Tuesday night at Itchy Jones Stadium.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: EVEY, Marcus (5-0)
L: Steege, Jamison (4-3)
Batting:
3B: Vasic, Nikola 1
HR: Blackfan, Logan 2 ; Fugitt, Addison 1
RBI: Blackfan, Logan 3 ; Fugitt, Addison 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kopach, Connor 1 ; Blackfan, Logan 2 ; Fugitt, Addison 1
SB: Fugitt, Addison 1
HBP: Vasic, Nikola 1 ; Epps, Grey 1
Batting:
HR: CHAMBERS, Chase 1 ; KALEIWAHEA, Brennon 1
RBI: JUNIOR, Alex 3 ; PUTZIG, Trevor 2 ; CHAMBERS, Chase 4 ; OSBORNE, Nick 1 ; KALEIWAHEA, Brennon 1
Base Running:
RUNS: PUTZIG, Trevor 1 ; STROHSCHEIN, Kevin 1 ; CHAMBERS, Chase 2 ; HAM, John 1 ; GARZA, David 1 ; OSBORNE, Nick 2 ; KALEIWAHEA, Brennon 2 ; CARRERA, Anthony 1
HBP: PUTZIG, Trevor 1 ; KALEIWAHEA, Brennon 1
