SIU advances in MVC Tournament with 7-4 win over Bradley

Tuesday, May 21

Normal, Ill.

5:30 p.m.

Southern Illinois University

25-27

Bradley

31-19

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

05/21/2019 | 9:01:00 | Baseball

Box Score

By: By John Lock | SIUSalukis.com

NORMAL, Ill. - The Southern Illinois baseball team upset Bradley 7-4 on Tuesday evening at Duffy Bass Field to advance in the 2019 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. The Salukis advance to face the tournament's No. 2 seed Illinois State on Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m.

"I'm so proud of our guys. Everybody battled, and everybody played well," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "I thought the difference in the game was what our offense did with two strikes. Two-strike hitting is about battling, competing, and grinding up there, putting the ball in play and making things happen. We scored a lot of runs because we made things happen late in counts."

Six of SIU's seven runs were driven home on two-strike counts. Bradley (31-19) had an early 2-0 lead, but the Salukis (25-27) battled back to tie the game in the fourth inning and take the lead in the fifth. Aiden McMahan drove in the first run with a first-pitch infield single, the only run SIU drove in without two strikes on the batter. His head-first slide into first base turned an RBI groundout into an infield single, which proved critical when Grey Epps drove him home later in the inning with a sacrifice fly.

McMahan gave SIU the lead with a two-out, two-strike RBI single in the fifth inning, and J.T. Weber added an run with his own two-out, two-strike RBI single. All four of SIU's runs in the middle innings were charged to Bradley ace Mitch Janssen, who pitched a complete game shutout against SIU earlier in the season.

SIU ace left-hander Brad Harrison took the mound and made just his second start since April 5 after battling arm fatigue. Harrison was outstanding allowing just two runs. On a pitch count, Harrison was efficient and made it into the fifth inning. Justin Yeager replaced him with runners on the corners and one out. The Braves tried a safety squeeze, and Weber made an outstanding bare-handed play to nab the runner at home and save a run.

Yeager pitched well, but Bradley got a pair of infield singles in the sixth inning, which included its own head-first dive into first base that drove in the game-tying run with two outs. Yeager didn't get rattled and ended up going a career-high 3.2 innings and earned his fourth win of the season.

Weber gave Yeager the win by starting the eighth inning with a leadoff double, and Philip Archer drove in that go-ahead run with an RBI single. The Salukis added two insurance runs in the ninth inning. Alex Lyon drove home Will LaRue with an RBI single. Then, with two outs, Weber beat out an infield single, and Lyon never stopped running from second base and came around to score.

MVC saves leader Trey McDaniel earned his 13th save of the season. Bradley loaded the bases with one out, but McDaniel struck out BU's top two hitters to end the game and advance SIU to the double-elimination portion of the MVC Tournament. In the first year of the new tournament format, SIU advanced out of Tuesday's single-elimination play-in game to the now six-team, double-elimination tournament.

SIU faces MVC co-champion and No. 2 seed Illinois State on Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Duffy Bass Field.

Notes: SIU won an MVC Tournament game for the eighth time in head coach Ken Henderson's nine seasons ... Weber extended his hitting streak to seven games and reached base streak to 14 games ... In the last six games, Weber is 15-for-24 (.625) with five multi-hit games ... Alex Lyon's ninth-inning stolen base gave SIU 140 stolen bases this year, which broke a 48-year-old record set by the 1971 College World Series team … SIU is 10-2 all-time against Bradley in the MVC Tournament … SIU improved to 23-2 when leading or tied after six innings … SIU is 18-7 when it doesn't allow a home run … SIU is 20-4 when out-hitting an opponent, or when hits are tied.