Friday, May 3
Carbondale, Ill.
5 p.m.
Southern Illinois University
20-22, 2-11
8
vs
6
Evansville
21-20, 8-5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Evansville
0
0
0
3
1
2
0
0
0
6
9
1
Southern Illinois
1
2
3
0
2
0
0
0
X
8
7
1
SIU takes opener from Evansville, 8-6
05/03/2019 | 10:00:00 | Baseball
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Aiden McMahan went 3-for-4 with 6 RBIs to lead the Southern Illinois baseball team to an 8-6 win over Evansville on Friday evening on Itchy Jones Stadium. The Salukis have won three-straight games.Â
SIU (20-22, 2-11 MVC) jumped out to a 6-0 lead, and it did that against Evansville flamethrower Adam Lukas, who has touched 100 mph this year. But Evansville (21-20, 8-5 MVC) fought back to get within 6-4 before McMahan hit a two-run homer, which turned out to be the game-winning runs after the Aces scored twice more in the sixth. McMahan finished just a single shy of the cycle, and his 6 RBIs were the most for a Saluki this season.Â
"We did a good job of being ready to go early," head coach Ken Henderson said. "Offensively, we set the tone early against one of the better pitchers in the league. We did a great job and swung it well to get that early lead. We have to do a better job playing with a lead. McMahan had a phenomenal game. We scored eight runs, and he drove in six of them. It's not often that you see a guy miss a cycle by a single. Our bullpen went 3.1 innings with no walks and one hit. That's the key to the game. It was a good win for us to keep the momentum going."
Postgame Interviews » Henderson | McMahan
Justin Yeager and Trey McDaniel nailed down the win with 3.1 combined innings of one-hit ball. Evansville scored all its runs in the middle three innings to get momentum offensively. The Aces got an RBI single off Yeager shortly after he entered the game; but after that, Yeager shut down Evansville's momentum with a perfect seventh inning and a scoreless eighth.Â
"They did a great job," Henderson said. "(Yeager) used to be a one-inning guy for us, and now he's giving us two or three innings to get the ball to Trey, and that's what we need him to do in that situation. Early on, we didn't do a great job with the lead, but they came in and shut the door."
The Salukis have won three-straight, which includes two wins over teams ranked in the top-50 nationally in RPI. The Aces were listed as "Next Four Out" for an NCAA at-large berth by Baseball America this week.Â
"They're a scrappy ball club," Henderson said of Evansville, which came into the weekend a bubble team for an NCAA at-large berth. "They're hard to strike out. They're going to put balls in play and compete their rear ends off offensively. That's what they did. We have to execute a little better, but that's being awfully picky because for the most part, we had a really good night."
Ian Walters started SIU's scoring with a solo homer in the first inning. McMahan started his great day with an RBI double in the second, and Addison Fugitt followed that up with an RBI triple. In the third inning, McMahan hit a bases-clearing triple to chase Lukas.
"As a team, a lot of guys got on base," McMahan said. "I got a lot of pitches to hit, and luckily, I found a couple gaps, and we scored a lot of runs. We came out on top, so that's what matters."Â
The Salukis have scored 28 runs on the current three-game winning streak and have scored at least eight runs in three-straight games for the first time this season. The second game of the three-game series is set for 4 p.m. on Saturday. Blake Begner will take the mound for the Salukis.Â
Notes: SIU is 18-2 when tied or leading after six innings ... SIU is 13-5 when it doesn't allow a home run ... The Salukis are 15-7 at Itchy Jones Stadium this year, clinching a winning record at home for a fourth-straight year. SIU is 24 games above .500 at Itchy Jones Stadium since the start of the 2016 season (66-42-1) ... McMahan, who was a single shy of the cycle tonight, was a triple shy of the cycle on March 22 vs. Morehead State. No SIU player has hit for a cycle since Sal Frisella in 2000 ... During the three-game winning streak, SIU has scored 28 runs on 24 hits.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Hiser, Mason (4-3)
L: Lukas, Adam (5-4)
S: McDaniel, Trey (10)
Batting:
2B: Jones, Matthew 1
RBI: Troyer, Sam 1 ; Shepherd, Craig 1 ; Borgstrom Danny 1 ; Jones, Matthew 3
Base Running:
RUNS: Troyer, Sam 1 ; Reeder, Nate 1 ; Fritz, A.J. 1 ; Beilsmith, Troy 2 ; Jones, Matthew 1
SB: Reeder, Nate 1 ; Beilsmith, Troy 2 ; Jones, Matthew 1
HBP: Reeder, Nate 1 ; Beilsmith, Troy 1 ; Komonosky, Ben 1
Batting:
2B: Archer, Philip 1 ; McMahan, Aiden 1
3B: McMahan, Aiden 1 ; Fugitt, Addison 1
HR: Walters, Ian 1 ; McMahan, Aiden 1
RBI: Walters, Ian 1 ; McMahan, Aiden 6 ; Fugitt, Addison 1
Base Running:
RUNS: LaRue, Will 1 ; Walters, Ian 2 ; Archer, Philip 3 ; McMahan, Aiden 1 ; Weber, J.T. 1
SB: Vasic, Nikola 1
CS: McMahan, Aiden 1
HBP: Walters, Ian 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
1
H
3
RBI
6
AB
3
R
3
H
2
RBI
0
AB
3
R
2
H
1
RBI
1
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
LHP
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RHP
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RHP
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