Sunday, April 29
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SIU completes sweep at Evansville, 9-4
04/29/2018 | 6:32:00 | Baseball
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EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Southern Illinois baseball team completed a three-game sweep at Evansville with a 9-4 win on Sunday afternoon at Braun Stadium. Alex Lyon and Logan Blackfan combined to go 5-for-9 with seven RBIs in the win.
"We were much better on offense today," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "We got some big hits and scored some runs. We took care of business. Any time you can get a sweep in this league, it's big. To do it on the road, that's huge. I'm proud of our guys for their effort this weekend."
Blackfan started the day with a two-out RBI single in the first inning, but Evansville responded with two runs in the bottom half to take a 2-1 lead. The Aces held the lead there until the fifth inning. With the bases loaded, Lyon hit a bases-clearing double, and Blackfan followed with a two-run homer to give SIU (24-20, 7-5 MVC) a comfortable 6-2 lead.
"We had guys on all weekend and couldn't get the big hit," Henderson said. "Today, we had the bases loaded, and Alex Lyon cleared the bases with a double. After that, everyone relaxed a little bit. Sometimes, it just takes one big hit and it's contagious and everyone joins in. After that, we were much better with runners in scoring position. Niko had a couple great bunts. Austin Ulick hit a couple sacrifice flies. We executed much better."
After the rocky first inning, SIU starter Brad Harrison threw four-straight scoreless innings. He earned his fifth win of the season.
"We talk to our pitchers about grinding it out and giving us a chance when they don't have their best stuff, and that was certainly Brad Harrison today," Henderson said. "He threw up a lot of zeros."
In the three-game sweep, SIU's pitching staff had a 1.33 ERA.
"Overall, our staff did a really good job all weekend," Henderson said. "Until the last four or five innings today, we weren't great offensively. We finally starting swinging it better, but the pitchers threw up a lot of zeros until we got going."
Evansville (7-30, 1-11 MVC) mounted a threat in the eighth inning. Two singles, an error and two walks forced in a pair of runs. With the bases loaded and one out, Trey McDaniel ended the threat with a strikeout and a pop out. McDaniel earned his second career save by coming into the jam and earning the final five outs.
SIU went 5-for-12 with runners in scoring position in the game and hit three sacrifice flies. Lyon hit one in the sixth inning to extend SIU's lead to 7-2. Ulick hit one in the seventh and another in the ninth to extend the lead.
The Salukis earned their first MVC sweep of the season and have won three of its first four Valley series of the year. Three of those conference series have been on the road, and SIU has won two of the three road series. Overall, SIU improved to 20-4 against unranked teams since March 5.
With 11 regular season games remaining in the season, SIU travels to Illinois for a mid-week game on Tuesday before hosting Indiana State next weekend at Itchy Jones Stadium.
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Southern Illinois baseball team completed a three-game sweep at Evansville with a 9-4 win on Sunday afternoon at Braun Stadium. Alex Lyon and Logan Blackfan combined to go 5-for-9 with seven RBIs in the win.
"We were much better on offense today," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "We got some big hits and scored some runs. We took care of business. Any time you can get a sweep in this league, it's big. To do it on the road, that's huge. I'm proud of our guys for their effort this weekend."
Blackfan started the day with a two-out RBI single in the first inning, but Evansville responded with two runs in the bottom half to take a 2-1 lead. The Aces held the lead there until the fifth inning. With the bases loaded, Lyon hit a bases-clearing double, and Blackfan followed with a two-run homer to give SIU (24-20, 7-5 MVC) a comfortable 6-2 lead.
"We had guys on all weekend and couldn't get the big hit," Henderson said. "Today, we had the bases loaded, and Alex Lyon cleared the bases with a double. After that, everyone relaxed a little bit. Sometimes, it just takes one big hit and it's contagious and everyone joins in. After that, we were much better with runners in scoring position. Niko had a couple great bunts. Austin Ulick hit a couple sacrifice flies. We executed much better."
After the rocky first inning, SIU starter Brad Harrison threw four-straight scoreless innings. He earned his fifth win of the season.
"We talk to our pitchers about grinding it out and giving us a chance when they don't have their best stuff, and that was certainly Brad Harrison today," Henderson said. "He threw up a lot of zeros."
In the three-game sweep, SIU's pitching staff had a 1.33 ERA.
"Overall, our staff did a really good job all weekend," Henderson said. "Until the last four or five innings today, we weren't great offensively. We finally starting swinging it better, but the pitchers threw up a lot of zeros until we got going."
Evansville (7-30, 1-11 MVC) mounted a threat in the eighth inning. Two singles, an error and two walks forced in a pair of runs. With the bases loaded and one out, Trey McDaniel ended the threat with a strikeout and a pop out. McDaniel earned his second career save by coming into the jam and earning the final five outs.
SIU went 5-for-12 with runners in scoring position in the game and hit three sacrifice flies. Lyon hit one in the sixth inning to extend SIU's lead to 7-2. Ulick hit one in the seventh and another in the ninth to extend the lead.
The Salukis earned their first MVC sweep of the season and have won three of its first four Valley series of the year. Three of those conference series have been on the road, and SIU has won two of the three road series. Overall, SIU improved to 20-4 against unranked teams since March 5.
With 11 regular season games remaining in the season, SIU travels to Illinois for a mid-week game on Tuesday before hosting Indiana State next weekend at Itchy Jones Stadium.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Harrison, Brad (5-3)
L: Burke, Jace (0-5)
S: McDaniel, Trey (2)
Batting:
2B: Lyon, Alex 1 ; Blackfan, Logan 1
3B: Lyon, Alex 1
HR: Blackfan, Logan 1
RBI: Lyon, Alex 4 ; Blackfan, Logan 3 ; Ulick, Austin 2
SH: Vasic, Nikola 1
SF: Lyon, Alex 1 ; Ulick, Austin 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Vasic, Nikola 2 ; Lyon, Alex 2 ; Blackfan, Logan 2 ; Epps, Grey 2 ; Crawford, Kenton 1
SB: Kopach, Connor 1 ; Blackfan, Logan 1 ; Hudson, Brad 1
HBP: Crawford, Kenton 1
Batting:
2B: Horstmeier, Dalton 1
RBI: Crews, Kenton 1 ; Tanous, Andrew 2 ; Reeder, Nate 1
SH: Crews, Kenton 1 ; Troyer, Sam 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Nelson, Stewart 1 ; Horstmeier, Dalton 2 ; Crews, Kenton 1
HBP: Day, Jimmy 1
Game Leaders
AB
5
R
2
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3
RBI
3
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
3
R
2
H
1
RBI
0
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