Friday, February 21
San Diego, Calif.
3 p.m. CT
Southern Illinois University
3-3
5
vs
6
Arizona
4-1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Southern Illinois
0
0
5
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
7
0
Arizona
1
0
1
1
3
0
0
0
X
6
12
0
Wildcats Creep Up To Beat Salukis, 6-5
02/21/2020 | 5:45:00 | Baseball
SAN DIEGO – After leading 5-1 heading into the bottom of the third, the Southern Illinois University baseball team game up five-straight runs over the following three innings to lose 6-5 in the first game of the Tony Gwynn Legacy Classic against No. 18 Arizona on Friday afternoon.
"Out of the three losses that we've had on the season, today's the first day that we've played a clean game and gotten beat," said first-year head coach Lance Rhodes. "We want to walk away from a game feeling like the other team actually beat us. Today, that's just what happened. They had a couple more hits than we did, and they scratched one more run across than we did. But it wasn't a loss because of mistakes that we did to ourselves. Obviously, we're not happy because the result isn't what we wanted but we can walk away knowing that it wasn't mistakes on our part that cost us the game."
Mason Hiser got the starting nod and saw some trouble early after Arizona led off with a triple, followed by a sac fly by the next batter that gave Arizona the early 1-0 lead. The Wildcats would follow with a two singles to place runners at first and third before Hiser got Arizona's Jacob Blas to fly out to end the inning, which he then followed up with a clean second inning.
After Addison Fugitt struck out at the top of the third, Lucas Danielewicz would get on base by way of a walk, which then began a Saluki onslaught. Following Danielewicz's walk, Austin Ulick would single to left, advancing Danielewicz to second. A double down the right field line by Ian Walters would score Danielewicz and advance Ulick to third before Brad Hudson collected his fourth and fifth RBIs of the year off of a two-RBI single up the middle, which scored Walters and Ulick.
Nick Neville then singled through the right side and advanced to second on the throw, advancing Hudson to third. JT Weber then flew out to center, scoring Hudson for his first RBI of the season. Finally, Philip Archer singled off of the pitcher's glove to score Neville to give the Salukis the 5-1 advantage.
Arizona would homer in back-to-back innings to trim the deficit to 5-3 at the end of the fourth. At the bottom of the fifth, Hiser was replaced by Kyle Back who went on to give up three runs before being replaced by Matthew Steidl with runners on second and third and two outs to go in the fifth. Steidl gave up one run off of a single before getting two Wildcats to fly and ground out to end the inning.
Steidl went on to throw for the remainder of the game, collecting two strikeouts and only walking one over that span. "He's thrown well," said Rhodes of Steidl. "Every time we've given him the ball, he's thrown well. It's one of those things with Steidl it feels like every time he goes out; he keeps getting better and better throughout the game."
Heading into the ninth, the Salukis trailed by just one with a chance to even things up. However, Arizona's closer, Gill Luna, struck out the side to secure the victory.
"Today's really the first day that we've faced high caliber arms on the offensive side," said Rhodes. "We had our moments where we had opportunities and we capitalized on some of those opportunities. We just didn't have enough of those moments down the stretch. That's what happens when you face really good arms."
"I like the effort that we gave today," said Rhodes. "I like the fact that we played a clean game. We just made the other team beat us today and that's what happened."
The Salukis will return to action tomorrow from Tony Gwynn Stadium on the campus of San Diego State to take on the USC Trojans. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. (3 p.m. CT).
"Out of the three losses that we've had on the season, today's the first day that we've played a clean game and gotten beat," said first-year head coach Lance Rhodes. "We want to walk away from a game feeling like the other team actually beat us. Today, that's just what happened. They had a couple more hits than we did, and they scratched one more run across than we did. But it wasn't a loss because of mistakes that we did to ourselves. Obviously, we're not happy because the result isn't what we wanted but we can walk away knowing that it wasn't mistakes on our part that cost us the game."
Mason Hiser got the starting nod and saw some trouble early after Arizona led off with a triple, followed by a sac fly by the next batter that gave Arizona the early 1-0 lead. The Wildcats would follow with a two singles to place runners at first and third before Hiser got Arizona's Jacob Blas to fly out to end the inning, which he then followed up with a clean second inning.
After Addison Fugitt struck out at the top of the third, Lucas Danielewicz would get on base by way of a walk, which then began a Saluki onslaught. Following Danielewicz's walk, Austin Ulick would single to left, advancing Danielewicz to second. A double down the right field line by Ian Walters would score Danielewicz and advance Ulick to third before Brad Hudson collected his fourth and fifth RBIs of the year off of a two-RBI single up the middle, which scored Walters and Ulick.
Nick Neville then singled through the right side and advanced to second on the throw, advancing Hudson to third. JT Weber then flew out to center, scoring Hudson for his first RBI of the season. Finally, Philip Archer singled off of the pitcher's glove to score Neville to give the Salukis the 5-1 advantage.
Arizona would homer in back-to-back innings to trim the deficit to 5-3 at the end of the fourth. At the bottom of the fifth, Hiser was replaced by Kyle Back who went on to give up three runs before being replaced by Matthew Steidl with runners on second and third and two outs to go in the fifth. Steidl gave up one run off of a single before getting two Wildcats to fly and ground out to end the inning.
Steidl went on to throw for the remainder of the game, collecting two strikeouts and only walking one over that span. "He's thrown well," said Rhodes of Steidl. "Every time we've given him the ball, he's thrown well. It's one of those things with Steidl it feels like every time he goes out; he keeps getting better and better throughout the game."
Heading into the ninth, the Salukis trailed by just one with a chance to even things up. However, Arizona's closer, Gill Luna, struck out the side to secure the victory.
"Today's really the first day that we've faced high caliber arms on the offensive side," said Rhodes. "We had our moments where we had opportunities and we capitalized on some of those opportunities. We just didn't have enough of those moments down the stretch. That's what happens when you face really good arms."
"I like the effort that we gave today," said Rhodes. "I like the fact that we played a clean game. We just made the other team beat us today and that's what happened."
The Salukis will return to action tomorrow from Tony Gwynn Stadium on the campus of San Diego State to take on the USC Trojans. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. (3 p.m. CT).
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Irvin, Garrett (2-0)
L: Back, Kyle (1-1)
S: Luna, Gil (1)
Batting:
2B: Walters, Ian 1
RBI: Walters, Ian 1 ; Hudson, Brad 2 ; Weber, J.T. 1 ; Archer, Philip 1
SF: Weber, J.T. 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Walters, Ian 1 ; Hudson, Brad 1 ; Neville, Nick 1 ; Danielewicz, Lucas 1 ; Ulick, Austin 1
CS: Hudson, Brad 1
PO: Hudson, Brad 1 ; Fugitt, Addison 1
Batting:
2B: Blas, Jacob 1 ; Donahue, Kyson 1
3B: Williams, Donta 1
HR: Wells, Austin 1 ; Bingham, Mac 1
RBI: Dyer, Matthew 1 ; Wells, Austin 1 ; Blas, Jacob 1 ; Boissiere, Branden 1 ; Bingham, Mac 1
SH: Donahue, Kyson 1
SF: Dyer, Matthew 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Williams, Donta 1 ; Wells, Austin 2 ; Holgate, Ryan 1 ; Blas, Jacob 1 ; Bingham, Mac 1
SB: Blas, Jacob 1 ; Boissiere, Branden 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
2
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
1
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
INF
/ Baseball
C
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballOF
/ BaseballINF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
C
/ BaseballINF
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