Sunday, March 21
Carbondale, Ill.
12 p.m.
Southern Illinois University
17-1
2
vs
0
Marshall
3-7
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Marshall
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
0
SIU
0
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
X
2
7
0
#27 Salukis shut out Marshall, sweep series
03/21/2021 | 6:08:00 | Baseball
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Brad Harrison and Trey McDaniel combined for a four-hit shutout to lead the No. 27 ranked SIU baseball team to a 2-0 win over Marshall on Sunday afternoon at Itchy Jones Stadium. SIU swept the three-game series and improved to 17-1 on the season.Â
"Today's game was similar to all weekend, where it was led by the pitching side," SIU head coach Lance Rhodes said. "Brad built off last weekend's start, which was his best of the season. He basically was identical to last weekend. It was huge to get him off to a good start. It's nice to be able to win on the pitching and defense side when the bats are still struggling just a little bit."
Brad Harrison started for SIU and was dominant. Marshall (3-7) got a one-out single in the first inning. After that, Harrison retired 20 of the next 21 hitters he faced, including 14-straight at one point. He struck out nine and walked nobody in seven innings of work, and he only needed 85 pitches in the masterpiece.Â
Trey McDaniel took the ball from Harrison and pitched two scoreless innings to secure his fifth save of the season in as many chances. In the three-game sweeps, SIU pitching struck out 35 Marshall hitters and walked just two.Â
"In order to be a championship-caliber team, you have to be balanced," Rhodes said. "It's not that we weren't pitching well early in the year, but when we hit really well, sometimes the bats can pick up the pitching. When we're not swinging it well, the pitching picks up the offense. To win upper-30s, 40-plus games and go to a regional, those are the types of things you have to be able to do. Right now, we're a pretty balanced club. We run the bases well; we defend; we can hit for power at times; and now, we dominated all weekend on the mound. It was a balanced effort."
SIU scratched across a run in the fourth on a J.T. Weber sacrifice fly that scored Vinni Massaglia. In the fifth. Nick Neville and Tristan Peters hit back-to-back doubles to score SIU's second run. The win gave SIU a sweep in the three-game series and redeemed the club's only loss of the season -- last Sunday against Evansville with a chance to sweep the Aces.Â
"Last weekend we learned that when you have an opportunity to sweep and you've beaten a team before, they're probably going to give you their best effort this last game because they don't want to get on a bus and drive home eight hours and lose all three," Rhodes said. "We had the mentality to grind out every at-bat, every pitch today. The conditions were warm, but it was a tough day to hit. The wind was straight in our face. The umpire had a good zone for a pitcher. Every run was going to be crucial, so we were just trying to scratch across a run any time we could get one in any way possible."
The sweep was a familiar result -- SIU has finished undefeated on four of its five weekends this season -- but an unfamiliar path to get there. The Salukis have been one of the best offensive teams in the nation this year, coming into the Marshall series in the top-10 nationally in batting average, slugging, hits, and scoring. This weekend, SIU still scored -- it averaged 6.3 runs per game in the series -- but not at its previous clip of 10 runs per game. But the Salukis got gems from all three starting pitchers and got outstanding work from the bullpen behind them.Â
"We didn't hit the home run like we have been, but it's nice that we still found ways to win games in other ways," Rhodes said. "It's nice to hit a home run to give use three instant runs, but we were able to bunt, steal bases, and manufacture any way we can to score runs. The key today was being able to rely on the arms, which is good. For us to be a playoff-type team, we're going to have to do it on the pitching and defense side. It's going to be tough to score as many runs as we've been scoring every single game."
SIU played error-free for the second-straight day, and the Salukis got contributions from everybody in the three-game series. Eight players drove in a run. Eight players scored. Eleven players got a hit. The result: a three-game sweep over a Marshall team that ranked #76 in the RPI.Â
"That's the theme of the year: It hasn't been just one guy," Rhodes said. "Brad Hudson stepped in the first two games and was phenomenal. Him and Evan Martin are playing really well off of each other depending on the pitching matchup we have. It's like that throughout the lineup. That's why we've been as successful as we've been. It hasn't been just a couple guys that we have to count on, and wait for the lineup to get all the way back around to those guys. We can literally do damage one through nine. That causes havoc on the other team. It's about balance."
NOTES: SIU improved to 11-1 at Itchy Jones Stadium this year and 16-1 at home under head coach Lance Rhodes ... The Salukis are 47-14 at home in their last 61 home games ... SIU is 22-1 in its last 23 games, dating back to last year ... SIU improved to 4-0 all-time vs. Marshall. Prior to this series, the teams had not met since the 1973 NCAA Tournament ... Tristan Peters extended his reached base streak to 16-straight games ... SIU is ranked #27 in the Collegiate Baseball top-30 poll.Â
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"Today's game was similar to all weekend, where it was led by the pitching side," SIU head coach Lance Rhodes said. "Brad built off last weekend's start, which was his best of the season. He basically was identical to last weekend. It was huge to get him off to a good start. It's nice to be able to win on the pitching and defense side when the bats are still struggling just a little bit."
Brad Harrison started for SIU and was dominant. Marshall (3-7) got a one-out single in the first inning. After that, Harrison retired 20 of the next 21 hitters he faced, including 14-straight at one point. He struck out nine and walked nobody in seven innings of work, and he only needed 85 pitches in the masterpiece.Â
Trey McDaniel took the ball from Harrison and pitched two scoreless innings to secure his fifth save of the season in as many chances. In the three-game sweeps, SIU pitching struck out 35 Marshall hitters and walked just two.Â
"In order to be a championship-caliber team, you have to be balanced," Rhodes said. "It's not that we weren't pitching well early in the year, but when we hit really well, sometimes the bats can pick up the pitching. When we're not swinging it well, the pitching picks up the offense. To win upper-30s, 40-plus games and go to a regional, those are the types of things you have to be able to do. Right now, we're a pretty balanced club. We run the bases well; we defend; we can hit for power at times; and now, we dominated all weekend on the mound. It was a balanced effort."
SIU scratched across a run in the fourth on a J.T. Weber sacrifice fly that scored Vinni Massaglia. In the fifth. Nick Neville and Tristan Peters hit back-to-back doubles to score SIU's second run. The win gave SIU a sweep in the three-game series and redeemed the club's only loss of the season -- last Sunday against Evansville with a chance to sweep the Aces.Â
"Last weekend we learned that when you have an opportunity to sweep and you've beaten a team before, they're probably going to give you their best effort this last game because they don't want to get on a bus and drive home eight hours and lose all three," Rhodes said. "We had the mentality to grind out every at-bat, every pitch today. The conditions were warm, but it was a tough day to hit. The wind was straight in our face. The umpire had a good zone for a pitcher. Every run was going to be crucial, so we were just trying to scratch across a run any time we could get one in any way possible."
The sweep was a familiar result -- SIU has finished undefeated on four of its five weekends this season -- but an unfamiliar path to get there. The Salukis have been one of the best offensive teams in the nation this year, coming into the Marshall series in the top-10 nationally in batting average, slugging, hits, and scoring. This weekend, SIU still scored -- it averaged 6.3 runs per game in the series -- but not at its previous clip of 10 runs per game. But the Salukis got gems from all three starting pitchers and got outstanding work from the bullpen behind them.Â
"We didn't hit the home run like we have been, but it's nice that we still found ways to win games in other ways," Rhodes said. "It's nice to hit a home run to give use three instant runs, but we were able to bunt, steal bases, and manufacture any way we can to score runs. The key today was being able to rely on the arms, which is good. For us to be a playoff-type team, we're going to have to do it on the pitching and defense side. It's going to be tough to score as many runs as we've been scoring every single game."
SIU played error-free for the second-straight day, and the Salukis got contributions from everybody in the three-game series. Eight players drove in a run. Eight players scored. Eleven players got a hit. The result: a three-game sweep over a Marshall team that ranked #76 in the RPI.Â
"That's the theme of the year: It hasn't been just one guy," Rhodes said. "Brad Hudson stepped in the first two games and was phenomenal. Him and Evan Martin are playing really well off of each other depending on the pitching matchup we have. It's like that throughout the lineup. That's why we've been as successful as we've been. It hasn't been just a couple guys that we have to count on, and wait for the lineup to get all the way back around to those guys. We can literally do damage one through nine. That causes havoc on the other team. It's about balance."
NOTES: SIU improved to 11-1 at Itchy Jones Stadium this year and 16-1 at home under head coach Lance Rhodes ... The Salukis are 47-14 at home in their last 61 home games ... SIU is 22-1 in its last 23 games, dating back to last year ... SIU improved to 4-0 all-time vs. Marshall. Prior to this series, the teams had not met since the 1973 NCAA Tournament ... Tristan Peters extended his reached base streak to 16-straight games ... SIU is ranked #27 in the Collegiate Baseball top-30 poll.Â
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Harrison, Brad (3-0)
L: John Cheatwood (1-1)
S: McDaniel, Trey (5)
Batting:
2B: Martin, Evan 1 ; Neville, Nick 1 ; Peters, Tristan 1 ; Massaglia, Vinni 1
RBI: Peters, Tristan 1 ; Weber, J.T. 1
SF: Weber, J.T. 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Neville, Nick 1 ; Massaglia, Vinni 1
CS: Blubaugh, Nick 1
HBP: Rask, Tony 1 ; Cleveland, Cody 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
LHP
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OF
/ BaseballOF
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballINF
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OF
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