Southern Illinois University
29-11
Southeast Missouri
28-11
SIU rallies from 5 back in the 8th and stuns SEMO in 11, 7-6
04/26/2022 | 10:12:00 | Baseball
Carbondale, Ill. … A memorable five days, three games stretch ended in memorable fashion for Saluki Baseball Tuesday at Itchy Jones Stadium. SIU, playing its 3rd game versus a team with a top 50 RPI in five days, rallied from a 6-1 deficit with two outs in the 8th inning and went on to beat Southeast Missouri 7-6 in 11 innings Tuesday at Itchy Jones Stadium. The win raised SIU's record to 29-11 while the loss lowered SEMO's to 28-10.
Jack Rigoni was the game winning hero for the Salukis. Starting just his tenth game of the season (but his second in a row) the centerfielder slammed a home run to left field leading off the bottom of the 11th inning off Kyle Miller (7-3) giving the Salukis the win. It was Rigoni's first Saluki home run, was his fourth hit of the game and was his seventh hit in nine at-bats in his last two games.
J.T. Weber made Rigoni's heroics possible. Down 6-3 with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, Weber slammed fellow Southern Illinoisan Hunter Rawlls' (Anna-Jonesboro HS) 3-2 pitch over the centerfield fence tying the game at 6-6. It was Weber's 16th home run of the season, his 31st in the last two seasons and the 33rd of his five-year career. He is three home runs shy of Robert Jones' (1983-1986) SIU career home run record (36).
Weber's homer capped a five-run, two out eighth inning Saluki game tying rally. Jeremy Schork doubled in the first two runs of the inning with a double, his first pinch hit of the season. SIU trailed 6-1 going into the bottom of the eighth inning.
Weber drove in SIU's first run of the game in the bottom of the first when he delivered Rigoni with a single. Weber's game-high four RBIs moved into tenth place on SIU's career RBIs list with 139.
Weber's first inning RBI game tied the game at 1-1. After Andrew Keck made it 2-1 SEMO with an RBI double in the third inning, the Redhawks' Ben Palmer gave SEMO a 4-1 lead with a two-run double in the fourth.
SEMO seemingly put the game away in the eighth inning when Lincoln Andrews hit a two-run home run giving it a 6-1 lead.
But SIU reliever and winning pitcher Matthew Steidl (4-2) suffocated the Redhawks for the second time in two weeks by pitching shutout baseball in the final three innings enabling SIU's five run eighth inning and Rigoni's walk-off heroics in the 11th.
SIU, part of a three-way tie for first place in the Missouri Valley Conference, returns to conference play this Friday at 6pm. when it hosts Valparaiso in the opener of a three-game series. SIU retires Hall of Famer Itchy Jones' uniform #1 prior to Saturday's 2 pm. game versus the Beacons.
SIU NOTES: Jones is the fastest Saluki coach to reach 80 SIU victories as he reached 80 wins in his 100th career game. Current Coach Lance Rhodes reached 80 wins Tuesday vs. SEMO and is the second fastest. He's coached 117 games … In addition to being second in career HRs, and 10th in career RBIs at SIU, Weber is ninth in career runs scored. He tied PJ Finigan (2002-2005) for 9th with 150 career runs … Steidl is 2-0 vs. SEMO in 2022. He struck out five batters Tuesday. In 6.1 IP vs. SEMO this season, Steidl's faced 21 hitters and struck out 11 of them … Rhodes rested Cody Cleveland for a second consecutive game, though Cleveland entered the game as a pinch runner for Schork in the eighth inning and scored on Weber's HR … Five SEMO pitchers combined to strikeout 14 SIU hitters … Five Saluki pitchers combined to strike out 11 batters … SIU's won 11 of the last 12 meetings with SEMO and Rhodes is 4-0 as SIU's coach versus his alma matter … Jones' jersey retirement ceremony will come less than a week after the death of his brother, Robert "Cowboy" Jones. Mr. Jones, 79, died early Monday morning in Henderson, Ky. He had a highly successful 50-year career as a jockey, largely at Ellis Park in Evansville, In.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Steidl, Matthew (4-2)
L: Miller, Kyle (7-3)
Batting:
2B: Mason, Jevon 1 ; Keck, Andrew 1 ; Graber, Brett 1
HR: Andrews, Lincoln 1
RBI: Wilber, Tyler 1 ; Keck, Andrew 1 ; Andrews, Lincoln 2 ; Palmer, Ben 2
SH: Leeper, Peyton 1 ; Andrews, Lincoln 1
SF: Wilber, Tyler 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Mason, Jevon 1 ; Leeper, Peyton 1 ; Graber, Brett 1 ; Parker, Spencer 1 ; Vaske, Joel 1 ; Andrews, Lincoln 1
SB: Mason, Jevon 1 ; Leeper, Peyton 1 ; Palmer, Ben 1
HBP: Mason, Jevon 1 ; Vaske, Joel 1
Batting:
2B: Rigoni, Jack 1 ; Schork, Jeremy 1
HR: Rigoni, Jack 1 ; Weber, J.T. 1
RBI: Rigoni, Jack 1 ; Weber, J.T. 4 ; Schork, Jeremy 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Rigoni, Jack 3 ; Weber, J.T. 1 ; Martin, Evan 1 ; Hagedorn, Nick 1 ; Cleveland, Cody 1
