Sunday, February 28
Macon, Ga.
12 p.m. CT
Southern Illinois University
7-0
5
at
2
Mercer
3-4
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Southern Illinois
0
1
3
0
0
0
0
0
1
5
11
0
Mercer
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
0
2
6
1
Salukis sweep Mercer, improve to 7-0
02/28/2021 | 2:54:00 | Baseball
MACON, Ga. - The SIU baseball team completed a three-game sweep at Mercer on Sunday afternoon with a 5-2 win. The Salukis improved to 7-0 on the season, the program's best start since 1967, and became just the second team in the last decade to sweep the Bears at Mercer's home ballpark.Â
SIU's sweep was impressive. Mercer is one of only four teams in the country who has won 35+ games in each of the past 10 full seasons. The others are Vanderbilt, LSU and Florida State. Mercer is more than 100 games over .500 at its home ballpark in the last decade (191-87).Â
"When you can go into that environment, against a team that's going to NCAA Regionals and wins 35 games every year, and you play with the confidence that we played with, that shows the maturity of our guys," SIU head coach Lance Rhodes said. "We were locked in. We walked into that series and believed we belonged on that stage."
And in that decade, only two teams have swept Mercer at OrthoGeorgia Park: Indiana State in 2019, a year in which the Sycamores went 43-18, and the 2021 Salukis.
"We played solid baseball really from the first pitch Friday to the last out today," Rhodes said. "Mercer is a good team with multiple NCAA Regional appearances in the last several years, and we outplayed them. Our lineup is a fun offensive group to have. We have interchangeable pieces. They're all pulling for each other, and they pass it along from one at-bat to the next. It's relentless, and it wears on a pitcher."
SIU starting pitcher Ben Chapman was outstanding for the second-straight week. After throwing six shutout innings in his first Division I start last week, Chapman pitched seven innings today and allowed just one unearned run. And he did it in a hitter-friendly ballpark that had yielded a combined 40 runs in the first two games of the series.Â
"He pitched extremely well. They didn't square him up very often," Rhodes said. "He had a couple leadoff walks; but other than that, he was throwing multiple pitches for strikes, and they didn't get much solid contact on him."Â
The Salukis (7-0) went straight to closer Trey McDaniel, who picked up the two-inning save. Mercer (3-4) hit a homer in the eighth but never got the potential game-tying run to the plate against SIU's bullpen ace, who saved his 22nd career game.Â
McDaniel was a part of an outstanding SIU bullpen throughout the series. Yesterday, Gage O'Brien and Tanner Lewis combined to strike out 13 batters in six innings. In the three-game series, SIU's bullpen struck out 23 hitters and walked just two.Â
"The biggest thing about our bullpen was that we pounded the strike zone," Rhodes said. "When we throw consistent strikes, with the putaway pitches we have back there, we have a chance to be successful. We were relentless putting the ball in the strike zone and made them earn everything they got."
Southern's offense got rolling early. Vinni Massaglia hit a second-inning solo shot. J.T. Weber hit a two-run blast in the third, and Tristan Peters added an RBI single in the third to put SIU up 4-0. After Mercer got within 4-2, Ian Walters gave McDaniel some ninth-inning breathing room with a solo homer in the top half of the inning.Â
UP NEXT: SIU hosts Western Illinois on Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Itchy Jones Stadium.Â
NOTES: SIU is 7-0 for just the second time in program history. The 1967 Salukis started the year 11-0. No other SIU teams have started a season better than 4-0 ... SIU has the second-most wins in the nation without a loss (Stetson is 9-0) ... Mercer was 13-3 in the COVID shortened 2020 season ... SIU's seven-game winning streak this season is the longest winning streak at any point in a season for the program since 2007 ... SIU has won 12-straight games overall, dating back to the final five games of 2020 ... SIU's 12-game winning streak across the last two years is the longest for the program since a 16-game winning streak in 1990 ... Ian Walters had two hits and extended his reached base streak to 28 games, which dates back to late in the 2019 season ... Philip Archer extended his reached base streak to 18 games, which dates back to last year.Â
SIU's sweep was impressive. Mercer is one of only four teams in the country who has won 35+ games in each of the past 10 full seasons. The others are Vanderbilt, LSU and Florida State. Mercer is more than 100 games over .500 at its home ballpark in the last decade (191-87).Â
"When you can go into that environment, against a team that's going to NCAA Regionals and wins 35 games every year, and you play with the confidence that we played with, that shows the maturity of our guys," SIU head coach Lance Rhodes said. "We were locked in. We walked into that series and believed we belonged on that stage."
And in that decade, only two teams have swept Mercer at OrthoGeorgia Park: Indiana State in 2019, a year in which the Sycamores went 43-18, and the 2021 Salukis.
"We played solid baseball really from the first pitch Friday to the last out today," Rhodes said. "Mercer is a good team with multiple NCAA Regional appearances in the last several years, and we outplayed them. Our lineup is a fun offensive group to have. We have interchangeable pieces. They're all pulling for each other, and they pass it along from one at-bat to the next. It's relentless, and it wears on a pitcher."
SIU starting pitcher Ben Chapman was outstanding for the second-straight week. After throwing six shutout innings in his first Division I start last week, Chapman pitched seven innings today and allowed just one unearned run. And he did it in a hitter-friendly ballpark that had yielded a combined 40 runs in the first two games of the series.Â
"He pitched extremely well. They didn't square him up very often," Rhodes said. "He had a couple leadoff walks; but other than that, he was throwing multiple pitches for strikes, and they didn't get much solid contact on him."Â
The Salukis (7-0) went straight to closer Trey McDaniel, who picked up the two-inning save. Mercer (3-4) hit a homer in the eighth but never got the potential game-tying run to the plate against SIU's bullpen ace, who saved his 22nd career game.Â
McDaniel was a part of an outstanding SIU bullpen throughout the series. Yesterday, Gage O'Brien and Tanner Lewis combined to strike out 13 batters in six innings. In the three-game series, SIU's bullpen struck out 23 hitters and walked just two.Â
"The biggest thing about our bullpen was that we pounded the strike zone," Rhodes said. "When we throw consistent strikes, with the putaway pitches we have back there, we have a chance to be successful. We were relentless putting the ball in the strike zone and made them earn everything they got."
Southern's offense got rolling early. Vinni Massaglia hit a second-inning solo shot. J.T. Weber hit a two-run blast in the third, and Tristan Peters added an RBI single in the third to put SIU up 4-0. After Mercer got within 4-2, Ian Walters gave McDaniel some ninth-inning breathing room with a solo homer in the top half of the inning.Â
UP NEXT: SIU hosts Western Illinois on Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Itchy Jones Stadium.Â
NOTES: SIU is 7-0 for just the second time in program history. The 1967 Salukis started the year 11-0. No other SIU teams have started a season better than 4-0 ... SIU has the second-most wins in the nation without a loss (Stetson is 9-0) ... Mercer was 13-3 in the COVID shortened 2020 season ... SIU's seven-game winning streak this season is the longest winning streak at any point in a season for the program since 2007 ... SIU has won 12-straight games overall, dating back to the final five games of 2020 ... SIU's 12-game winning streak across the last two years is the longest for the program since a 16-game winning streak in 1990 ... Ian Walters had two hits and extended his reached base streak to 28 games, which dates back to late in the 2019 season ... Philip Archer extended his reached base streak to 18 games, which dates back to last year.Â
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Chapman, Ben (2-0)
L: Fred Wilson (1-1)
S: McDaniel, Trey (3)
Batting:
HR: Walters, Ian 1 ; Weber, J.T. 1 ; Massaglia, Vinni 1
RBI: Walters, Ian 1 ; Weber, J.T. 2 ; Peters, Tristan 1 ; Massaglia, Vinni 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Walters, Ian 1 ; Weber, J.T. 1 ; Neville, Nick 1 ; Massaglia, Vinni 1 ; Rask, Tony 1
SB: Neville, Nick 1 ; Peters, Tristan 1
HBP: Rask, Tony 1
PO: Peters, Tristan 1
Batting:
HR: Colby Thomas 1
RBI: Colby Thomas 1 ; CJ Keckler 1
SF: CJ Keckler 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Colby Thomas 1 ; Brandon Michie 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
5
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
AB
5
R
1
H
2
RBI
2
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
AB
5
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
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RHP
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