Southern Illinois University
32-13, 9-4
Missouri State
22-20, 5-8
Lewis, Weber lead SIU past Missouri St. 8-2
05/06/2022 | 2:10:00 | Baseball
Weber ties SIU single season HR record
Springfield, Mo. … Tanner Lewis, Matthew Steidl and Ben Chapman combined to hold high-powered Missouri St. to one earned run, and J.T. Weber tied the SIU single-season HR record as Saluki Baseball downed Missouri St. 8-2 Friday in a three-game series opener at Hammons Field.
Lewis (4-1, 2-0) pitched the first 5 innings and allowed one unearned run on two hits. Steidl pitched two and two thirds scoreless innings allowing three hits and Chapman recorded the final five outs, allowing one run on two hits in his first relief appearance in his 26 Saluki career games.
SIU (32-13, 9-4) beat Missouri St. (22-20, 5-8) for the seventh consecutive time.
Weber's HR came in the fifth off Missouri St. starter and losing pitcher Adam Link (4-5, 1-3). He drove in Jack Rigoni, who'd doubled. Weber has 34 career HRs, two shy of the school record held by Robert Jones (36, 1983-86).
Designated hitter Cody Cleveland, playing for the first time since April 29th, hit his fourth HR of the season for SIU's seventh run of the game in the seventh inning. Nathan Bandy and Nick Hagedorn followed Cleveland's HR with consecutive singles. Then, Jack Rigoni drove in Bandy with SIU's eighth and final run.
Cleveland drove in two runs. His fourth inning ground out scored Evan Martin with SIU's first run. Bandy knocked in SIU's other fourth inning run on 3B Grant Wood's error.
SIU scored twice in sixth inning when Nick Hagedorn drove in Grey Epps with a single and when Cleveland and Hagedorn successfully ran a delayed double steal in which Cleveland stole home.
SIU choked off two MSU rallies with double plays. The Bears turned 3B Ryan Rodriguez' sixth inning error into an unearned run off Lewis. A walk and two singles in the ninth gave the Bears an earned run versus Chapman.
The Salukis and Bears return to action Saturday in Springfield, Mo. Game time is 11:00am.
SALUKI NOTES: This is the second consecutive season a Saluki's broken or tied the school's single season HR record. SS Nick Neville hit 17 HRs in 2021. Weber tied Neville Friday. The previous HR record (16 by Jerry Miller) stood for 31 years … Weber remained in 8th place in career runs scored at SIU, 153. He moved into ninth place in career runs batted in with 142 … He is the only player in school history who is in the Top 10 in career HRs, Runs and RBIs … Grey Epps tied the SIU career strikeout record (201, Logan Blackfan) when he struck out in the second inning … The bottom third of SIU's lineup-Cody Cleveland, Nathan Bandy, and Nick Hagedorn-scored 3 of SIU's 8 runs, had 5 of SIU's 10 hits and scored 4 of SIU's 8 runs … Steidl struck out five of the 12 hitters he faced, including four in a row … SIU is 22-1 when it scores first in a game … SIU's longest losing streak of the season remains two games (twice). SIU's longest losing streak under Coach Rhodes is 4 games, which happened twice in 2021 … SIU's won 24 MVC games in 3 seasons under Rhodes (2020-22). It won 25 MVC games total the previous 3 seasons (2017-2019) … SIU's last series win at Missouri St. came in 2016.Â
Coach Lance Rhodes post game on Saluki Radio:Â https://siusalukis.com/watch/?Archive=6323&type=Archive
Winning pitcher Tanner Lewis post game on Saluki Radio:Â https://siusalukis.com/watch/?Archive=6322&type=Archive
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Lewis, Tanner (4-1)
L: Link,Adam (4-5)
Batting:
2B: Rigoni, Jack 1 ; Hagedorn, Nick 1
HR: Weber, J.T. 1 ; Cleveland, Cody 1
RBI: Rigoni, Jack 1 ; Weber, J.T. 2 ; Cleveland, Cody 2 ; Bandy, Nathan 1 ; Hagedorn, Nick 1
SH: Bandy, Nathan 1
SF: Rigoni, Jack 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Rigoni, Jack 1 ; Weber, J.T. 1 ; Martin, Evan 1 ; Epps, Grey 2 ; Cleveland, Cody 2 ; Bandy, Nathan 1
SB: Cleveland, Cody 1 ; Hagedorn, Nick 1
CS: Martin, Evan 1
Batting:
2B: Hull,Mason 1 ; Duff,Will 1
RBI: Greer,Mason 1 ; Kotowski,Dakota 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Nivens,Spencer 1 ; Greer,Mason 1
HBP: Hull,Mason 1 ; Kotowski,Dakota 1
