Saturday, February 29
Morehead, Ky.
1 p.m. CT
Southern Illinois University
6-5
7
at
11
Morehead State
4-5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Southern Illinois
3
0
0
0
2
0
1
0
1
7
11
0
Morehead State
4
0
0
0
0
1
1
5
X
11
13
1
Late-inning surge lifts Morehead St. over SIU, 11-7
02/29/2020 | 6:10:00 | Baseball
MOREHEAD, Ky. — Morehead State evened the series with a 11-7 win over Southern Illinois on Saturday afternoon at Allen Field. The Eagles (4-5) broke a 6-6 tie with a five-run eighth inning to take the game.
"It was neck-and-neck for eight innings. The biggest difference was we punched out 15 times," first-year head coach Lance Rhodes said. "We didn't give ourselves enough outs to work with. In this park, you got to find a way to put the ball in play. A missed hit could be a ball off the wall or even a home run here. That's what Morehead was able to do in the eighth. Those were routine fly balls that went out for home runs in this ballpark. But that's why you got to find a way to put the ball in play."
The high-scoring contest featured five ties and five lead changes. Each team put up two innings with multiple runs.
Three extra-base hits pushed SIU (6-5) to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first. Ian Walters led off the game with a first-pitch home run. Philip Archer and Kyle O'Brien followed with RBI doubles.
SIU starting pitcher Brad Harrison took the mound and was tagged for four runs in the bottom of the first. He rebounded with consecutive scoreless frames, but was replaced by Dylan Givens in the bottom of the fourth.
Givens was solid in 2.2 innings of relief work. The senior gave up one run on only one hit and one walk to keep the Salukis in the game.
The Salukis powered back in front in the top of the fifth. Nick Neville hit a leadoff triple and came around to score on a wild pitch. Archer reached second on his third double of the game and scored on a double by Addison Fugitt, which made the game 5-4 in favor of SIU.
"He (Philip Archer) had a great day offensively." Rhodes said. "It was good because we need to get Phil going in the middle of the order."
Southern's offense had clutch hitting once again in the top of the seventh. Archer tripled for his fourth extra-base hit of the game. Pinch-hitter Lucas Danielewicz tallied his first-career hit, a two-out RBI-double, to score Archer from third and give SIU a 6-5 lead.
"Lucas had a huge hit," Rhodes said. "Our guys were sitting out in the cold all day. He came up in the spur of the moment and put a barrel on the ball to drive in a run and put us ahead."
Kyle Dixon and Trey McDaniel (1-1) pitched the remaining two innings in the loss. Dixon garnered only one out in the bottom of the seventh, as Morehead turned three hits into one run off the freshman. McDaniel stranded two base runners with two-straight outs in seventh. He returned to pitch in the bottom of the eighth and gave up a pair of two-out home runs, which accounted for five runs. The runs were the first allowed by McDaniel this season.
Archer, who went 4-for-4 with four extra-base hits — three doubles and one triple — led the Salukis on offense. The senior added an RBI on a sac fly in the bottom of the ninth. He was the first Saluki in 10 years (Chris Serritella, 2/28/10) with four extra-base hits in one game. Ian Walters was 2-for-4 with one RBI. In the series, he is 5-for-9 with five RBI. However, the Salukis struck out a season-high 15 times and left nine runners on base.
Defensively, the Salukis committed no errors for the fifth time this season. SIU has one or less errors in nine-straight games.
Southern will go for the series win tomorrow at noon CT.
"We got to come out and attack the strike zone tomorrow," Rhodes said. "Offensively, we got grind out every at-bat in every inning because it's going to be a high-scoring game. I've been at this park many times and the scores are just like today. It's a really hard park to keep the opponent down because there are so many factors on how you can score runs. We got to eliminate some of the strikeouts and tack runs on the board every chance we have."
"It was neck-and-neck for eight innings. The biggest difference was we punched out 15 times," first-year head coach Lance Rhodes said. "We didn't give ourselves enough outs to work with. In this park, you got to find a way to put the ball in play. A missed hit could be a ball off the wall or even a home run here. That's what Morehead was able to do in the eighth. Those were routine fly balls that went out for home runs in this ballpark. But that's why you got to find a way to put the ball in play."
The high-scoring contest featured five ties and five lead changes. Each team put up two innings with multiple runs.
Three extra-base hits pushed SIU (6-5) to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first. Ian Walters led off the game with a first-pitch home run. Philip Archer and Kyle O'Brien followed with RBI doubles.
SIU starting pitcher Brad Harrison took the mound and was tagged for four runs in the bottom of the first. He rebounded with consecutive scoreless frames, but was replaced by Dylan Givens in the bottom of the fourth.
Givens was solid in 2.2 innings of relief work. The senior gave up one run on only one hit and one walk to keep the Salukis in the game.
The Salukis powered back in front in the top of the fifth. Nick Neville hit a leadoff triple and came around to score on a wild pitch. Archer reached second on his third double of the game and scored on a double by Addison Fugitt, which made the game 5-4 in favor of SIU.
"He (Philip Archer) had a great day offensively." Rhodes said. "It was good because we need to get Phil going in the middle of the order."
Southern's offense had clutch hitting once again in the top of the seventh. Archer tripled for his fourth extra-base hit of the game. Pinch-hitter Lucas Danielewicz tallied his first-career hit, a two-out RBI-double, to score Archer from third and give SIU a 6-5 lead.
"Lucas had a huge hit," Rhodes said. "Our guys were sitting out in the cold all day. He came up in the spur of the moment and put a barrel on the ball to drive in a run and put us ahead."
Kyle Dixon and Trey McDaniel (1-1) pitched the remaining two innings in the loss. Dixon garnered only one out in the bottom of the seventh, as Morehead turned three hits into one run off the freshman. McDaniel stranded two base runners with two-straight outs in seventh. He returned to pitch in the bottom of the eighth and gave up a pair of two-out home runs, which accounted for five runs. The runs were the first allowed by McDaniel this season.
Archer, who went 4-for-4 with four extra-base hits — three doubles and one triple — led the Salukis on offense. The senior added an RBI on a sac fly in the bottom of the ninth. He was the first Saluki in 10 years (Chris Serritella, 2/28/10) with four extra-base hits in one game. Ian Walters was 2-for-4 with one RBI. In the series, he is 5-for-9 with five RBI. However, the Salukis struck out a season-high 15 times and left nine runners on base.
Defensively, the Salukis committed no errors for the fifth time this season. SIU has one or less errors in nine-straight games.
Southern will go for the series win tomorrow at noon CT.
"We got to come out and attack the strike zone tomorrow," Rhodes said. "Offensively, we got grind out every at-bat in every inning because it's going to be a high-scoring game. I've been at this park many times and the scores are just like today. It's a really hard park to keep the opponent down because there are so many factors on how you can score runs. We got to eliminate some of the strikeouts and tack runs on the board every chance we have."
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: BAKKE,John (2-0)
L: McDaniel, Trey (1-1)
Batting:
2B: Archer, Philip 3 ; O'Brien, Kyle 1 ; Fugitt, Addison 1 ; Danielewicz, Lucas 1
3B: Neville, Nick 1 ; Archer, Philip 1
HR: Walters, Ian 1
RBI: Walters, Ian 1 ; Archer, Philip 2 ; O'Brien, Kyle 1 ; Fugitt, Addison 1 ; Danielewicz, Lucas 1
SF: Archer, Philip 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Walters, Ian 1 ; Hudson, Brad 1 ; Neville, Nick 1 ; Weber, J.T. 2 ; Archer, Philip 2
SB: Walters, Ian 1
HBP: Fugitt, Addison 1
Batting:
2B: SELLS,Arthur 1 ; HENSOR,Bryce 1
HR: BOYD,Zach 1 ; GOODNIGHT,Logan 1 ; SELLS,Arthur 1
RBI: BOYD,Zach 3 ; LAYNE,Ryan 1 ; GOODNIGHT,Logan 2 ; PERONI,Dom 1 ; SELLS,Arthur 3
Base Running:
RUNS: BOYD,Zach 1 ; LAYNE,Ryan 2 ; GOODNIGHT,Logan 2 ; HILL,Stephen 1 ; PERONI,Dom 1 ; SELLS,Arthur 1 ; SHOUPE,Brody 1 ; HENSOR,Bryce 2
CS: HILL,Stephen 1 ; PERONI,Dom 1
HBP: SHOUPE,Brody 1 ; HENSOR,Bryce 1
PO: HILL,Stephen 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
2
H
4
RBI
2
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
AB
5
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
INF
/ Baseball
C
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
LHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballINF
/ BaseballINF
/ BaseballINF
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