Sunday, March 8
Carbondale, Ill.
1 p.m.
Southern Illinois University
10-6
6
vs
0
Northern Illinois
7-8
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Northern Illinois
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
0
Southern Illinois
0
1
0
0
1
3
0
1
X
6
9
0
Photo by: Will Becque
Salukis shut out Huskies to complete sweep
03/08/2020 | 8:55:00 | Baseball
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The SIU baseball team got a pitching gem from Mitchell Jackson and Dylan Givens and played flawless defense behind them en route to a 6-0 win over Northern Illinois to complete the three-game sweep at Itchy Jones Stadium.Â
"From the first pitch on Friday until the last pitch on Sunday, our pitchers were solid. It was the theme of the weekend," SIU head coach Lance Rhodes said. "They gave us a chance to be in the game for a complete weekend. There were times where it was so frustrating offensively, and our pitchers could have went out there and caved. But they kept competing and giving out offense a chance to put runs on the board, and it got us a sweep."
Mitchell Jackson got the start for SIU (10-6) and pitched four shutout innings. With the bases loaded and one out, SIU turned to Dylan Givens, and get induced a ground ball. Nick Neville made the play to start the 6-4-3 double play to get SIU out of the inning. The Salukis were flawless on defense and made a number of great defensive plays to earn the shutout.Â
"They made some really tough plays look easy," Rhodes said. "The confidence that we're getting from our defense is huge. We don't have a bunch of pitchers that can strike a bunch of guys out. Now, our pitchers are confident that our defense will make plays behind them."
Givens went the rest of the way to earn the win. He induced two double plays, the second of which started a stretch in which Givens retired 11 of the final 12 hitters he faced.Â
Offensively, SIU hit into some tough luck early in the game. Most notably, in the third inning with the bases loaded and one out, Philip Archer crushed a ball that may have cleared the bases, but it was right at NIU's second baseman to start a 4-6-3 double play that got the Huskies (7-8) out of the inning. SIU took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on Lucas Danielewicz's RBI single, and Neville hit a sacrifice fly to give SIU a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning.Â
Neville drew a bases loaded walk in the sixth inning to put SIU up 3-0, and J.T. Weber came through with a clutch two-out, two-run single to give the Salukis some breathing room, 5-0. SIU tacked on a run in the eighth on Addison Fugitt's perfectly placed safety squeeze in the eighth inning to set the final score.
"We just kept pecking away, and we eventually got a big knock by J.T.," Rhodes said. "He deserves it. He hs hit a lot of balls hard right at people this entire year and doesn't have a lot to show for it. It was big hit for us."
The win gave SIU its first sweep of the year. The Salukis are 6-2 in their last eight games. SIU is in the midst of eight games in 10 games, with five games coming up this week. The Salukis go to Arkansas State on Tuesday before hosting SEMO on Wednesday. Then, the Salukis host Illinois over the weekend at Itchy Jones Stadium.Â
"We're on spring break with an opportunity to really lock in on baseball," Rhodes said. "We've gotten ourselves off to a good start. We have to get into the training room and hopefully get everyone healthy. It will be a big week with five games."
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"From the first pitch on Friday until the last pitch on Sunday, our pitchers were solid. It was the theme of the weekend," SIU head coach Lance Rhodes said. "They gave us a chance to be in the game for a complete weekend. There were times where it was so frustrating offensively, and our pitchers could have went out there and caved. But they kept competing and giving out offense a chance to put runs on the board, and it got us a sweep."
Mitchell Jackson got the start for SIU (10-6) and pitched four shutout innings. With the bases loaded and one out, SIU turned to Dylan Givens, and get induced a ground ball. Nick Neville made the play to start the 6-4-3 double play to get SIU out of the inning. The Salukis were flawless on defense and made a number of great defensive plays to earn the shutout.Â
"They made some really tough plays look easy," Rhodes said. "The confidence that we're getting from our defense is huge. We don't have a bunch of pitchers that can strike a bunch of guys out. Now, our pitchers are confident that our defense will make plays behind them."
Givens went the rest of the way to earn the win. He induced two double plays, the second of which started a stretch in which Givens retired 11 of the final 12 hitters he faced.Â
Offensively, SIU hit into some tough luck early in the game. Most notably, in the third inning with the bases loaded and one out, Philip Archer crushed a ball that may have cleared the bases, but it was right at NIU's second baseman to start a 4-6-3 double play that got the Huskies (7-8) out of the inning. SIU took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on Lucas Danielewicz's RBI single, and Neville hit a sacrifice fly to give SIU a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning.Â
Neville drew a bases loaded walk in the sixth inning to put SIU up 3-0, and J.T. Weber came through with a clutch two-out, two-run single to give the Salukis some breathing room, 5-0. SIU tacked on a run in the eighth on Addison Fugitt's perfectly placed safety squeeze in the eighth inning to set the final score.
"We just kept pecking away, and we eventually got a big knock by J.T.," Rhodes said. "He deserves it. He hs hit a lot of balls hard right at people this entire year and doesn't have a lot to show for it. It was big hit for us."
The win gave SIU its first sweep of the year. The Salukis are 6-2 in their last eight games. SIU is in the midst of eight games in 10 games, with five games coming up this week. The Salukis go to Arkansas State on Tuesday before hosting SEMO on Wednesday. Then, the Salukis host Illinois over the weekend at Itchy Jones Stadium.Â
"We're on spring break with an opportunity to really lock in on baseball," Rhodes said. "We've gotten ourselves off to a good start. We have to get into the training room and hopefully get everyone healthy. It will be a big week with five games."
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Givens, Dylan (1-0)
L: HEDMARK, Erik (2-1)
Batting:
2B: DROBUSHEVICH, Nick 1
Base Running:
SB: DROBUSHEVICH, Nick 1
HBP: DROBUSHEVICH, Nick 1 ; SMITH, Kam 1 ; JOYCE, Brendan 1
PO: LARSON, Jordan 1
Batting:
RBI: Fugitt, Addison 1 ; Neville, Nick 2 ; Weber, J.T. 2 ; Danielewicz, Lucas 1
SH: Fugitt, Addison 2 ; Ulick, Austin 1
SF: Neville, Nick 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Fugitt, Addison 1 ; Weber, J.T. 1 ; Ulick, Austin 1 ; Martin, Evan 3
SB: Hudson, Brad 1 ; Neville, Nick 1 ; Weber, J.T. 1 ; Epps, Grey 1
CS: Epps, Grey 1
HBP: Walters, Ian 1 ; Epps, Grey 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
3
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
2
R
1
H
2
RBI
2
AB
3
R
3
H
2
RBI
0
ph/cf
AB
1
R
1
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
INF
/ Baseball
C
/ BaseballOF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
INF
/ BaseballOF
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