Brad Harrison dominant again in Baseball's 3-1 win over Northern Illinois

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2 PM

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2 PM

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CARBONDALE, Ill. — Brad Harrison pitched another gem for the Southern Illinois baseball team on Friday, striking out eight batters and scattering five hits during a 3-1 win over Northern Illinois in the first of a three-game series.

Harrison (2-1) went 8.0 innings and did not allow a run until the seventh, extending his streak of scoreless frames to 16 straight. He walked two batters in the game, which ended a streak of 19-consecutive innings without a walk.

The junior left-hander pounded the strike zone from the start, retiring the first 11 batters he faced and striking out six of them.

"I knew early on he was pretty special today," said SIU head coach Ken Henderson. "He had great command of everything — he was going inside and painting the outer black."

The Salukis (7-4) scored single runs in the third, sixth and eighth innings, as Northern Illinois starter Erik Hedmark (0-2) nearly matched Harrison pitch-for-pitch .

"That's a very typical 'Friday' game when you get two good college pitchers hooking up," Henderson said. "That's the way it's going to be in the league on Fridays. You have to go out there every inning and match what their guy is doing and Brad can do that."

Southern's first run came in the third on a lead-off double by catcher Colin Butkiewicz, who scored on a sacrifice fly by right fielder Brad Hudson. The Salukis added an unearned run in the sixth to make it 2-0, as LaRue reached second on a dropped fly ball by right fielder Nick Drobushevich and came around to score on an Ian Walters sac fly.

Harrison encountered his first serious trouble in the seventh when the Huskies (2-10) scored a run on a walk and two singles, the second base hit squeaking through the right side after second baseman Nikola Vasic moved to cover the bag.

Things got dicey in the top of the eighth as well, after a walk and a base hit put runners at first and second with one out. That's when Southern turned a clutch double play. NIU's Tommy Szcazny hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Grey Epps, who stepped on second but his throw to first was not in time. Drobushevich tried to score from second on the play and was gunned down at home.

The Salukis were solid defensively all day behind Harrison, who wasted little time between pitches in a game that clocked in at just 2:01.

"Nobody on defense wants to stand there as the game drags a long," Harrison said. "They want to be on their toes ready to go. Being able to attack the strike zone allows them to make all the plays."

Southern added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on a leadoff triple by Vasic, who scored two batters later on Walters' second sacrifice fly. Vasic, SIU's leadoff hitter, was 1-for-10 in the team's last three games, but did some extra work on Friday that led to a 3-for-4 game today with two triples.

"He came in early yesterday and Coach (Seth) LaRue made some adjustments to his swing, and he bought in to everything we asked him to do," Henderson said. "That's by far the best he's looked all year. It's not an accident. He worked his rear end off."

Trey McDaniel retired the side in order in the ninth for Southern for his third save.

"He gets better every time out," Henderson noted. "He's a much better pitcher than he was a year ago. His stuff is better, his confidence is better."

The Salukis managed six hits on the afternoon and Henderson was pleased with his club's work against a talented arm.

"That's one of the best offensive days we've had all year," he said. "We barreled up a lot of balls and didn't have a lot to show for it because that guy's really good."

The start time for Saturday's game two has been changed to 6 p.m.

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