Thursday, May 23
Normal, Ill.
11 a.m.
Southern Illinois University
26-28
10
vs
9
Missouri State
20-36
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Southern Illinois
4
1
0
0
0
0
1
3
1
10
17
4
Missouri State
0
1
0
0
0
2
2
0
4
9
9
0
Salukis overpower Missouri State to advance in MVC Tournament
05/23/2019 | 4:34:00 | Baseball
NORMAL, Ill. - Southern Illinois built a big early lead and held on for a 10-9 win over Missouri State on Thursday afternoon in the MVC Tournament at Duffy Bass Field. SIU's offense piled up a season-high 17 hits, and Trey McDaniel withstood a ninth-inning charge to earn his 14th save of the season.Â
The Salukis set the tone in the top of the first inning. Nikola Vasic led off with a double and WIll LaRue followed with a walk. Ian Walters hit a three-run homer to put SIU up 3-0 before an out was recorded. Alex Lyon followed with a double; Aiden McMahan moved him to third with a groundout and J.T. Weber drove him home with a sac fly. Six Salukis -- Vasic, Walters, Lyon, Weber, Philip Archer and Grey Epps -- all recorded multi-hit games and combined to go 16-for-30.
"It was our best offensive day of the year, bar none," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "Our approaches and swings, up and down the lineup, were outstanding. We knew we had to because they're an explosive offensive club, and they're going to score some runs. We left some runs out there in the second, third and fourth innings; but we kept the pressure on them and kept putting good swings on it. It turns out, we needed every run."
SIU's starting pitcher Blake Begner was outstanding and held down the high-powered Missouri State offense. Begner pitched into the seventh and allowed just five hits and four runs (two earned) over 6.2 innings.Â
"That's Blake's best outing as a Saluki," Henderson said. "He had great command of three pitches. His change-up was big-time today, and he needed it against a good club."
McMahan came through with a two-out, two-strike RBI single in the second inning to push SIU's lead to 5-0. The Bears got an unearned run in the bottom of the second, but the game stayed at 5-1 until Missouri State hit back-to-back solo home runs in the sixth inning to bring the game within 5-3.Â
SIU (26-28) got a run in the seventh to extend the lead to 6-3, but the game nearly turned in the bottom of the seventh. With the bases loaded and two outs, a throwing error gave Missouri State (20-36) two runs, but Weber gunned down the would-be game-tying run at the plate to keep SIU in the lead and flip the momentum. Lyon, who committed the error in the seventh, hit a mammoth two-run homer in the top of the eighth, and Epps added a two-out RBI insurance run to push SIU's lead back to 9-5. Nikola Vasic, whose mother asked him before the game for a home run to celebrate her final day of chemotherapy, delivered with a solo blast in the ninth, which turned out to be the game-deciding run.Â
"We were relentless on offense today," Henderson said. "We kept putting good swings on it against good pitchers. That was the key to keep expanding the lead."
Playing for their tournament lives, Missouri State made it interesting in the bottom of the ninth inning. After a leadoff error, the Bears followed with back-to-back doubles and a homer to get within 10-9. McDaniel, the MVC's saves leader, got back-to-back strikeouts to the middle of MSU's order to preserve the win.Â
SIU will continue MVC Tournament play with an elimination game against Indiana State, which lost tonight to No. 2-seed Illinois State.Â
"This team won't quit," Henderson said. "We've faced adversity all year with injuries and a 10-game losing streak. They didn't quit during that, and they're not going to quit now. They're going to keep battling until someone makes us go home; and you know what? No one is making us go home today."
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Begner, Blake (6-7)
L: Lochner,Jake (3-3)
S: McDaniel, Trey (14)
Batting:
2B: Vasic, Nikola 1 ; Lyon, Alex 1 ; Epps, Grey 1
3B: Walters, Ian 1
HR: Vasic, Nikola 1 ; Walters, Ian 1 ; Lyon, Alex 1
RBI: Vasic, Nikola 1 ; Walters, Ian 3 ; Lyon, Alex 2 ; McMahan, Aiden 1 ; Weber, J.T. 1 ; Epps, Grey 1
SF: Weber, J.T. 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Vasic, Nikola 2 ; LaRue, Will 1 ; Walters, Ian 3 ; Lyon, Alex 2 ; Weber, J.T. 1 ; Archer, Philip 1
SB: LaRue, Will 1 ; Walters, Ian 1 ; Lyon, Alex 1
HBP: LaRue, Will 1 ; Lyon, Alex 1 ; Crawford, Kenton 1
Batting:
2B: Duffy,Jack 1 ; Zimmerman,Brooks 1 ; Millas,Drew 1
3B: Duffy,Jack 1
HR: Kotowski,Dakota 1 ; Polak,Joey 1 ; Millas,Drew 1
RBI: Zimmerman,Brooks 2 ; Kotowski,Dakota 2 ; Polak,Joey 1 ; Millas,Drew 1 ; Whetstone,Ben 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Duffy,Jack 2 ; Zimmerman,Brooks 2 ; Kotowski,Dakota 1 ; Polak,Joey 1 ; Millas,Drew 2 ; Privitera,John 1
SB: Privitera,John 1
HBP: Kotowski,Dakota 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
6
R
3
H
4
RBI
3
AB
6
R
2
H
3
RBI
1
AB
5
R
1
H
3
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
INF
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LHP
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RHP
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INF
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