Sunday, May 16
Terre Haute, Ind.
12 p.m. CT
Southern Illinois University
36-16, 0
5
at
0
Indiana State
25-15, 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Southern Illinois
0
0
4
0
0
0
0
1
0
5
11
1
Indiana State
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
7
0
Farmer shuts out Trees, Salukis claim series
05/16/2021 | 4:45:00 | Baseball
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Noah Farmer pitched a complete-game seven-hit shutout and led the SIU baseball team to a 5-0 win over Indiana State on Sunday afternoon at Bob Warn Field. Farmer didn't allow an opposing runner to reach third base in the shutout. SIU won the series, three games to one, over an Indiana State team that entered the weekend ranked in the top-20 nationally in the RPI.Â
Farmer was dominant, needing just 90 pitches to shutout the Sycamores. All seven hits he allowed were singles, and his defense was outstanding behind him, turning double plays to end each of the final three innings. Indiana State (25-15, 12-8 MVC) only saw eight pitches all game with a runner in scoring position and never got a runner to third base. Farmer struck out four and walked none in his first career complete-game shutout.Â
"I don't know what else we could have asked from Noah Farmer. That was as big of a performance as we've had all year long on the mound," SIU head coach Lance Rhodes said on the radio postgame interview with Mike Reis. "His bread and butter is the sinker, and it was really effective today. They matched up a lot of left handed hitters. When his sinker is right, it's really tough for both lefties and righties. He was doing a great job of running the ball down and away to lefties and getting a lot of right-side ground balls. Even the hits he gave up were scattered singles. With the amount of ground balls he was getting, you still felt comfortable because you're still a ground ball double play away from getting back to nobody on base. It was just a great performance."
SIU (36-16, 13-11 MVC) gave Farmer some breathing room with a four-run third inning. J.T. Weber hit an RBI double, and Tristan Peters followed with a sacrifice fly. Nick Neville hit his third homer of the weekend, a two-run shot, to give the Salukis a 4-0 lead.Â
Cody Cleveland stayed red-hot for the Salukis, collecting his fifth-straight multi-hit game. Today, Cleveland was 3-for-4 and was intentionally walked once. For the series, he went 11-for-17 (.647) with a double, two home runs, and five RBIs. His slash line for the weekend series was .647/.684/1.059. Cleveland led an SIU offense that hit .306 and pounded eight home runs against an Indiana State pitching staff that entered the weekend with the best staff ERA in the Missouri Valley Conference. Seven Salukis hit .300 or better over the four-game series. Ian Walters hit a solo homer in the eighth to set the final score at 5-0.
"We did a really good job offensively attacking the game plan," Rhodes said. "We knew (INS starter) Drake was going to live away from our left-handers. We've been rolling over that ground ball a little bit. We did a really good job. Neville and Walters stayed on the ball and drove it to left field. It's a strength of theirs to stay on the ball. They get really good backspin carry. Those were two really good at-bats. We obviously always love the long ball because it's instant offense, but we can't let our identity get away from putting the ball in play. I think that's what happened a couple weeks ago. We were living and dying by the long ball and striking out a ton. We need to get back to putting hard contact together."
Farmer led a Saluki pitching staff that now has tossed four shutouts in SIU's last 11 games.Â
UP NEXT: SIU hosts Dallas Baptist, which has already secured at least a share of the MVC regular season title, next weekend at Itchy Jones Stadium. The four-game series starts Thursday, as the teams prepare for the MVC Tournament, which starts next Tuesday at Itchy Jones Stadium.Â
NOTES: SIU's 36 wins are fifth-most in the nation, and the second-most for the program since 1991 (the 2005 team went 38-21) ... Indiana State had been 23-2 at Bob Warn Field in its last 25 home games prior to SIU taking the final three games of the series ... SIU improved to 6-1 against top-75 RPI teams, with all seven games being on the road (SIU swept #60 RPI Mercer Feb. 26-28) ... SIU became the first team to win three games in a weekend against Indiana State at Bob Warn Field since DBU swept the Sycamores in April 2016 ... Cody Cleveland started the year 4-for-28 (.143) and is 38-for-88 (.432) since then. He has an active streak of five-straight multi-hit games ... SIU has hit 72 homers this season, third-most in program history (SIU hit 75 homers in 1997 and 73 homers in 1998) ... Nick Neville hit his 14th home run of the season, which is tied for third-most in a single season in SIU history ... Neville has reached safely (H, BB, or HBP) in 34 of the last 35 games) ... SIU won a series over Indiana State for the first time since 2015 ... SIU is 8-2 in its last 10 MVC games after starting league play 5-9 ... J.T. Weber has hit safely in 18 of the last 20 games ... SIU's 13 MVC wins are most league wins for the program since going 13-11 in 2007 ... Farmer's complete-game shutout was SIU's second of the year, joining Brad Harrison, who pitched a complete-game shutout against Missouri State two weeks ago ... SIU turned three double plays, bringing the team total to an MVC-leading 42 this season. SIU is on the verge of leading the MVC in double plays for the seventh time in the last nine seasons (also led MVC in double plays in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2020).Â
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Farmer was dominant, needing just 90 pitches to shutout the Sycamores. All seven hits he allowed were singles, and his defense was outstanding behind him, turning double plays to end each of the final three innings. Indiana State (25-15, 12-8 MVC) only saw eight pitches all game with a runner in scoring position and never got a runner to third base. Farmer struck out four and walked none in his first career complete-game shutout.Â
"I don't know what else we could have asked from Noah Farmer. That was as big of a performance as we've had all year long on the mound," SIU head coach Lance Rhodes said on the radio postgame interview with Mike Reis. "His bread and butter is the sinker, and it was really effective today. They matched up a lot of left handed hitters. When his sinker is right, it's really tough for both lefties and righties. He was doing a great job of running the ball down and away to lefties and getting a lot of right-side ground balls. Even the hits he gave up were scattered singles. With the amount of ground balls he was getting, you still felt comfortable because you're still a ground ball double play away from getting back to nobody on base. It was just a great performance."
SIU (36-16, 13-11 MVC) gave Farmer some breathing room with a four-run third inning. J.T. Weber hit an RBI double, and Tristan Peters followed with a sacrifice fly. Nick Neville hit his third homer of the weekend, a two-run shot, to give the Salukis a 4-0 lead.Â
Cody Cleveland stayed red-hot for the Salukis, collecting his fifth-straight multi-hit game. Today, Cleveland was 3-for-4 and was intentionally walked once. For the series, he went 11-for-17 (.647) with a double, two home runs, and five RBIs. His slash line for the weekend series was .647/.684/1.059. Cleveland led an SIU offense that hit .306 and pounded eight home runs against an Indiana State pitching staff that entered the weekend with the best staff ERA in the Missouri Valley Conference. Seven Salukis hit .300 or better over the four-game series. Ian Walters hit a solo homer in the eighth to set the final score at 5-0.
"We did a really good job offensively attacking the game plan," Rhodes said. "We knew (INS starter) Drake was going to live away from our left-handers. We've been rolling over that ground ball a little bit. We did a really good job. Neville and Walters stayed on the ball and drove it to left field. It's a strength of theirs to stay on the ball. They get really good backspin carry. Those were two really good at-bats. We obviously always love the long ball because it's instant offense, but we can't let our identity get away from putting the ball in play. I think that's what happened a couple weeks ago. We were living and dying by the long ball and striking out a ton. We need to get back to putting hard contact together."
Farmer led a Saluki pitching staff that now has tossed four shutouts in SIU's last 11 games.Â
UP NEXT: SIU hosts Dallas Baptist, which has already secured at least a share of the MVC regular season title, next weekend at Itchy Jones Stadium. The four-game series starts Thursday, as the teams prepare for the MVC Tournament, which starts next Tuesday at Itchy Jones Stadium.Â
NOTES: SIU's 36 wins are fifth-most in the nation, and the second-most for the program since 1991 (the 2005 team went 38-21) ... Indiana State had been 23-2 at Bob Warn Field in its last 25 home games prior to SIU taking the final three games of the series ... SIU improved to 6-1 against top-75 RPI teams, with all seven games being on the road (SIU swept #60 RPI Mercer Feb. 26-28) ... SIU became the first team to win three games in a weekend against Indiana State at Bob Warn Field since DBU swept the Sycamores in April 2016 ... Cody Cleveland started the year 4-for-28 (.143) and is 38-for-88 (.432) since then. He has an active streak of five-straight multi-hit games ... SIU has hit 72 homers this season, third-most in program history (SIU hit 75 homers in 1997 and 73 homers in 1998) ... Nick Neville hit his 14th home run of the season, which is tied for third-most in a single season in SIU history ... Neville has reached safely (H, BB, or HBP) in 34 of the last 35 games) ... SIU won a series over Indiana State for the first time since 2015 ... SIU is 8-2 in its last 10 MVC games after starting league play 5-9 ... J.T. Weber has hit safely in 18 of the last 20 games ... SIU's 13 MVC wins are most league wins for the program since going 13-11 in 2007 ... Farmer's complete-game shutout was SIU's second of the year, joining Brad Harrison, who pitched a complete-game shutout against Missouri State two weeks ago ... SIU turned three double plays, bringing the team total to an MVC-leading 42 this season. SIU is on the verge of leading the MVC in double plays for the seventh time in the last nine seasons (also led MVC in double plays in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2020).Â
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Farmer, Noah (5-4)
L: Drake,Javin (2-3)
Batting:
2B: Weber, J.T. 1
HR: Neville, Nick 1 ; Walters, Ian 1
RBI: Weber, J.T. 1 ; Peters, Tristan 1 ; Neville, Nick 2 ; Walters, Ian 1
SH: Rask, Tony 1
SF: Peters, Tristan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Cleveland, Cody 1 ; Weber, J.T. 1 ; Neville, Nick 1 ; Walters, Ian 1 ; Rask, Tony 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
1
H
3
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
5
R
1
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
INF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
LHP
/ Baseball
INF
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
INF
/ BaseballOF
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