Saturday, May 4
Carbondale, Ill.
4 p.m.
Southern Illinois University
21-22, 3-11
5
vs
2
Evansville
21-21, 8-6
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Evansville
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
0
2
7
0
Southern Illinois
0
2
0
3
0
0
0
0
X
5
6
1
Salukis clinch series with 5-2 win over Evansville
05/04/2019 | 9:04:00 | Baseball
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois baseball program got an outstanding start from Blake Begner to take a series-clinching 5-2 win over Evansville on Saturday afternoon at Itchy Jones Stadium. SIU won its fourth-straight game and has a chance to sweep Evansville on Sunday at 1 p.m.Â
"It was a great ballgame, one of our better games of the year," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "It starts on the bump, Begner was really, really good and threw like he's capable of and we knew he could. We were literally one pitch away from throwing a shutout. We did a great job on the mound and a phenomenal job on defense."Â
Postgame Interviews » Archer | Begner | Henderson
SIU (21-22, 3-11 MVC) opened the scoring in the second inning. Alex Lyon led off with a single and scored on Philip Archer's RBI triple. J.T. Weber got the run home with a sacrifice fly. Southern added to the lead in the fourth inning. Aiden McMahan continued his hot weekend with an RBI single. Addison Fugitt took a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch to drive in another run, and Nikola Vasic drove home McMahan with a sac fly to push SIU's lead to 5-0.Â
"We didn't have a ton of hits, but we had timely hits," Henderson said. "The middle of the lineup stepped up. Lyon and Archer did a great job. I'm proud of them. That's a clean game."
That was more than enough for Begner, who scattered four hits over 5.2 shutout innings, striking out five. Evansville (21-21, 8-6 MVC), which entered the weekend just a game out of the Missouri Valley Conference lead, got its two runs on a two-out, two-run single in the eighth inning. The Aces became the first team to get an earned run against SIU reliever Matt DeSomer since early March.Â
After Evansville's two-run single got the Aces within 5-2, Justin Yeager needed only one pitch to get out of the inning. Evansville's Matthew Jones laced Yeager's first pitch down the left-field line, but Ian Walters made a sensational diving catch to end the inning. That turned the ball over to Trey McDaniel, who pitched a perfect ninth inning to lock down his MVC-best 11th save of the season.Â
SIU's four-game winning streak has been especially impressive considering its competition. The streak started with a win over Illinois on Tuesday, and the Illini are currently in the top-20 nationally in the RPI. Southern has followed that up with a series win over Evansville, which entered the weekend as an NCAA Tournament bubble team listed as "Next Four Out" by Baseball America. Evansville's resume includes an impressive series win over perennial NCAA at-large team Dallas Baptist earlier in the year.Â
"Right now, I'm really focused on how we're playing," Henderson said. "We're playing with confidence. We're trying to play better baseball down the stretch, and I'm excited about that. We're playing with energy and playing with confidence. I'm proud of our club and what we're doing."
SIU has a chance at its second sweep of the season and first MVC sweep on Sunday at 1 p.m. Southern swept Western Illinois in the first weekend in March. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. and freshman Matthew Steidl will take the mound for the Salukis.Â
Notes: SIU improved to 19-2 when tied or leading after six innings ... SIU is 14-5 when it doesn't allow a home run ... The Salukis are 16-7 at Itchy Jones Stadium this year and 25 games above .500 at home since 2016 (67-42-1).
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Begner, Blake (5-5)
L: Croner, Nathan (5-6)
S: McDaniel, Trey (11)
Batting:
2B: Shepherd, Craig 1 ; Craig, Tanner 1 ; Fritz, A.J. 1
RBI: Roberts, Eric 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Shepherd, Craig 1 ; Craig, Tanner 1
Batting:
3B: Archer, Philip 1
RBI: Vasic, Nikola 1 ; Archer, Philip 1 ; McMahan, Aiden 1 ; Weber, J.T. 1 ; Fugitt, Addison 1
SF: Vasic, Nikola 1 ; Weber, J.T. 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Lyon, Alex 2 ; Archer, Philip 2 ; McMahan, Aiden 1
SB: Fugitt, Addison 1
HBP: Weber, J.T. 1 ; Fugitt, Addison 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
3
R
2
H
2
RBI
1
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
1
AB
1
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
INF
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