Salukis walk off with series win vs. Morehead State

Sunday, March 24

Carbondale, Ill.

1 p.m.

Southern Illinois University

13-9

Morehead State

17-7

Morehead State

Southern Illinois

03/24/2019 | 6:59:00 | Baseball

Box Score

By: By John Lock | SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. - J.T. Weber hit a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the 11th inning to give the Southern Illinois baseball team a series-winning 5-4 victory over Morehead State at Itchy Jones Stadium.

"I'm unbelievably proud of our guys for continuing to battle and compete," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "It was a team effort. A lot of guys did a lot of great things. Obviously, great job by Yeager and a phenomenal job by Grace out of the pen to throw up zeros until we could figure out a way."

SIU (13-9) jumped out to a 4-0 lead after two innings, but Morehead State (17-7), the preseason OVC favorites, answered right back to tie the game after the fourth. The score stayed knotted at 4-4 until Weber's heroics in the 11th. Grey Epps drew a walk and moved into scoring position with two outs. Weber pounded a 2-1 breaking ball 101 miles per hour off the bat up the middle to score Epps to win the game and the series.

"The pitcher was going all sliders," Weber said. "I got in a good hitting count, and he threw me one 2-0, so I was looking for that exact pitch. I put a good swing on it. Our bullpen came out and did amazing today. They gave us a chance to win, so we're looking to carry that momentum on."

Postgame Interviews » Henderson | Weber | Vasic

SIU freshman righty Sam Grace was the key to the win. The Eagles have a top-10 batting average in college baseball and came into the weekend as the nation's 12th highest-scoring team. Grace came into a tie game and pitched six shutout innings, allowing just a single hit, to extend the game to extra innings.

"The thing you cannot tell in recruiting and you can't measure is that his make-up is off the charts," Henderson said of Grace. "From Day 1, he's not scared. He doesn't care. He wants the baseball. There is no situation too big for him. There's no environment that is too much. He believes in himself. He has great confidence and great make-up, and that's why he's going to have a great career."

Justin Yeager replaced Grace with a runner on and two outs in the 10th. Facing the middle of the high-powered Morehead State order, Yeager got a strikeout to end the 10th and pitched a scoreless 11th to earn the win. In the 11th, Yeager fanned Morehead State's Hunter Fain, who entered the series batting .500 on the season and was the nation's leader in on-base percentage. Fain went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts against Southern's pitchers today.

"For (Grace and Yeager) to do do what they did out of the bullpen, on a day when it's good hitting conditions against a good offensive club, is really special," Henderson said.

SIU's running game gave the Salukis a pair of early runs. Nikola Vasic and Ian Walters executed a double-steal in the first inning with no outs to put two runners into scoring position. A pair of RBI groundouts gave SIU a 2-0 lead. The bottom part of the lineup extended the lead. Philip Archer, Alex Lyon and Addison Fugitt all singled to start the second inning to make it a 3-0 game. Lyon went first-to-third on Fugitt's single and scored on Vasic's sac fly.

Without ace Brad Harrison, Southern moved all its starters up, which gave mid-week starter Mason Hiser a start on short rest after also starting Tuesday's win over SIU Edwardsville. Hiser worked around trouble in the first two innings before Morehead got three runs in the third on five singles. Hiser allowed nine hits, but they were all singles and he didn't walk a batter to limit the damage to three runs.

The Salukis improved to 10-2 at Itchy Jones Stadium in 2019, the program's best home start since 2008. SIU also improved to 11-2 in its last 13 games against unranked teams. Southern Illinois wraps up its five-game home stand with a 5 p.m. game against Belmont on Tuesday.