Salukis shut out Valpo 8-0 to win series

Sunday, April 8

Carbondale, Ill.

1 p.m.

Southern Illinois University

17-14, 4-2

Valparaiso

9-18, 2-4

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Valparaiso	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	1
Southern Illinois	0	0	0	0	7	0	0	1	X	8	11	0

04/08/2018 | 6:58:00 | Baseball

Box Score

By: By John Lock | SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois baseball team beat Valparaiso 8-0 on Sunday afternoon at Itchy Jones Stadium to win the series, 2-1. Brad Harrison and Trey McDaniel combined for a shutout, and the offense exploded for seven runs in the fifth inning.

"We talked about coming out today and competing harder and being tougher than we were yesterday," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "We had a bad day yesterday (in a 6-2 loss), and we wanted to out-compete them today. I thought we did a better job of that. It starts on the mound with Brad Harrison. He was phenomenal today, and he needed to be."

Valparaiso started the game with a leadoff triple. Harrison started his dominating outing by striking out the next three batters on a total of 10 pitches, preventing the run from coming home.

"That was huge. That was a momentum-changer," Henderson said.

Harrison went on to strike out 11 in seven shutout innings, earning his fourth win of the season. Trey McDaniel pitched two scoreless innings to secure Southern's fourth shutout of the year. Harrison has started three of the team's four shutouts.

SIU played without left fielder Alex Lyon, a .352 hitter who was held out as a precautionary measure with a tweaked hamstring. Even without him, everyone in the lineup reached base at least once, and nine-hole hitter Brad Hudson went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored.

"We miss Alex Lyon in the lineup. He's one of our better hitters," Henderson said. "When you take out your five-hole, you slide everyone up. It changes especially the bottom of the lineup a great deal. I'm really proud of those guys. We needed those guys to step up, and they did a good job."

SIU had traffic in the first and third innings, but Valpo kept the game scoreless. In the first inning, Valpo left fielder Blake Billinger caught a would-be sacrifice fly and made a perfect throw home for an inning-ending double play.

Southern Illinois broke the game open with a seven-run fifth inning. Drew Curtis opened the inning with a double, and SIU took advantage of an error and a hit-by-pitch to load the bases with no outs. Grey Epps pushed home the game's first run with a bases-loaded walk; Hudson singled home a run; and Nikola Vasic hit a sac fly to push the lead to 3-0. Addison Fugitt drew a walk to re-load the bases. Connor Kopach, Logan Blackfan and Curtis—Southern's 3-4-5 hitters today—hit back-to-back-to-back singles to put the game out of reach.

"We had some good ABs early; we just couldn't get the big AB. All of the sudden, we got a couple big ABs," Henderson said. "I thought our plate discipline really showed there. We got some things to fall. We had the right guys up at the right time, and they came through and executed."

Hudson singled home Kenton Crawford in the eighth inning to set the final score. SIU won each of its first two MVC series for the first time since 1999, having also won two of three at Illinois State last weekend to open Valley play.

"In this league, every series is big," Henderson said. "Everyone in the league is decent. One of our goals is to win series. We achieved that goal the first two weekends. That's a good start, but we still have a long way to go. We have to continue to play well and get better. If we continue to win series, we will put ourselves in a good position down the stretch."

SIU improved to 7-2 in its last nine games and 14-6 in its last 20.

The Salukis host Eastern Illinois on Tuesday at Itchy Jones Stadium before traveling to Dallas Baptist next weekend. The Patriots are the preseason MVC favorites and ranked No. 25 in the Baseball America top-25.