Southern Illinois University
10-8
Illinois
13-3
Shorthanded Salukis fall at No. 29 Illinois
03/17/2019 | 6:47:00 | Baseball
Southern Illinois (10-8) was without two of its top players, with Will LaRue and Alex Lyon sitting out with injuries sustained in Saturday's doubleheader; and defensively, the Salukis felt their absence. SIU scored first and took a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the third inning. With two outs, a would-be inning-ending pop out was dropped, and Illinois (13-3) followed with a three-run homer to take a 3-1 lead.Â
The Salukis managed to tie the game with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth, but Illinois took advantage of a pair of misplayed balls in the bottom half to answer back with a four-run inning to take a 7-3 lead it wouldn't relinquish. Illinois tacked on three in the fifth and four more in the sixth.Â
"I thought we played well the first two or three innings. We were competing, but the game turned on some fly balls we didn't catch," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "All of the sudden, it was 7-3, and the game got away from us in the bullpen. Those are guys who have thrown strikes for us; but for whatever reason, we didn't today."
SIU starter Blake Begner allowed seven runs on 11 hits in 3.1 innings, but he pitched better than his stats indicated. He worked around a pair of two-out singles in the first two innings and struck out two and didn't issue a walk.
"I thought our starting pitching was pretty good again," Henderson said. "We continue to keep ourselves in ballgames and give us a chance."
Illinois swept a weekend series for the fourth time in five weekends, and SIU was swept for the first time this year. Offensively, SIU was led by Grey Epps, who hit a sac fly and went 2-for-3 on the day with two RBIs. Nikola Vasic used his speed to turn a single into a double, ending an outstanding weekend for the senior in which he went 4-for-10 with three extra-base hits, a .538 on-base percentage and 5 RBIs.Â
The Salukis, who had won 9 of 11 games before the series, have a chance to rebound on Tuesday at home against SIU Edwardsville. First pitch is set for 4 p.m. at Itchy Jones Stadium, where the Salukis are 7-1 this season.
"The great thing about baseball is that you get a chance to play again in a couple days," Henderson said. "We can regroup and get better."
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Watson, Cyrillo (3-0)
L: Begner, Blake (2-2)
Batting:
2B: Vasic, Nikola 1 ; Epps, Grey 1
RBI: Epps, Grey 2 ; Crawford, Kenton 1 ; Hudson, Brad 1
SF: Epps, Grey 1 ; Hudson, Brad 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Vasic, Nikola 2 ; Epps, Grey 1 ; McMahan, Aiden 1 ; Archer, Philip 1
SB: Fugitt, Addison 1
HBP: Butkiewicz, Colin 1 ; Michel, Brady 1
Batting:
2B: Massey, Michael 1
3B: Troike, Ben 1 ; Comia, Branden 1
HR: Sarver, Kellen 1
RBI: Troike, Ben 4 ; Comia, Branden 3 ; Massey, Michael 2 ; Sarver, Kellen 3 ; Dyke, Andrew 1
SF: Comia, Branden 1 ; Massey, Michael 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Troike, Ben 3 ; Comia, Branden 1 ; Massey, Michael 1 ; Sarver, Kellen 1 ; Yalowitz, Jack 1 ; Van Scoy, Grant 3 ; Campbell, Jacob 1 ; Dyke, Andrew 3
