Baseball sweeps doubleheader versus Western Illinois on Opening Day

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Oct 17

2 PM

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Eastern Illinois University

Oct 24

2 PM

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Central Methodist University

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois starting pitchers combined to throw 15.0 innings of one-run baseball in a doubleheader sweep of Western Illinois on Friday afternoon, 8-1 and 6-1, on Opening Day at Itchy Jones Stadium.

The Salukis (5-3) won the first game behind a dominating performance by lefty Brad Harrison (1-1), who pitched 8.0 scoreless innings, allowing three hits, no walks and striking out eight. He pounded the strike zone, needing just 88 pitches to retire 24 batters.

"I just felt like I was in attack mode and put (Western Illinois) on their heels the majority of at-bats," said Harrison, who recorded career victory No. 6 and came three outs away from his second-career shutout. "Being at home for the first time, pitching in a comfortable environment, being able to build that confidence is really big."

Southern scored six runs in the first two innings to seize control of the game against right-hander Javin Drake (1-2), who got the start for Western Illinois (2-6).

Aggressive base-running accounted for the first two runs as Will LaRue and Nikola Vasic executed a double steal of second and home and LaRue later came around to score on a groundout by Ian Walters. The Salukis added four runs in the second inning, highlighted by a bases-loaded double by LaRue that cleared the bags.

A transfer from Xavier, LaRue entered the day 2-for-23 at the plate, but he went 4-for-8 with 5 RBI in the doubleheader. He also made a spectacular diving catch to start the sixth inning of game one.

"He's just gifted," said SIU head coach Ken Henderson. "Even though he was struggling, you stay with him because he has the intangibles. He plays the game extremely hard, he's a leader, the guys respect how he approaches the game."

Southern tacked on a couple more runs in the bottom of the eighth on a two-run single by JT Weber to push the lead to 8-0, and Matthew Steidl pitched the ninth, allowing one run, to close out the victory.

In game two, Blake Begner (1-1) picked up where Harrison left off, tossing five scoreless frames before allowing a single run in the sixth. In 7.0 innings, he allowed one run, three hits, a pair of walks and had four strikeouts. Southern won the game by scoring three runs apiece in the fifth and eighth innings.

"Both of our starting pitchers were pretty special today," Henderson said. "That was Blake's best outing of the year. He did what we thought he could do and hoped he could do."

Neither team scored in game two until the Salukis posted three runs in the bottom of the fifth, two coming on LaRue's first career home run, a towering drive over the left field wall.

"We knew (LaRue) would eventually get it figured out," Henderson added. "I think he was pressing early. He had probably the two biggest hits of the day."

The Salukis picked up three insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth, the last run coming on a SAC fly by catcher Austin Ulick, who was 2-for-2 with a walk and also threw out two base runners attempting to steal.

"Ulick has really swung the bat well for us but didn't have a lot to show for it early in the year," Henderson said. "He's had some really quality at-bats, so I'm not surprised about (today)."

Henderson noted his team struck out 17 times on the day and "didn't have a great day on offense," but the pitching and defense more than made up for it.

"It's fun when you're playing behind guys who are just filling up the zone and executing pitches," he said.

The Salukis will go for the sweep on Saturday at 1 p.m.

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