Errors Prove Costly in Baseball's 9-4 Loss to Utah Tech

Saturday, March 28

2 PM

Southern Illinois University

10-15

Utah Tech

17-10

Utah Tech

Southern Ill.

Julio Guerrero smashes a solo home run during Southern Illinois' 9-4 loss to Utah Tech Saturday, March 28, 2026, at Itchy Jones Stadium in Carbondale, Ill. The home run was Guerrero's fifth home run in the last six games.

Photo by: Malayna Russell

03/28/2026 | 9:46:00 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Jordan Kruse, SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois made five costly errors in a 9-4 loss to Utah Tech Saturday at Itchy Jones Stadium. All nine Trailblazer runs were scored in the final three innings.

Julio Guerrero continued his torrid stretch at the plate, smacking his fifth home run in the last six games with a solo homer in the first.

Troy Shepard followed Andrew Evans' big start on Friday with 5.2 shutout innings on the mound, not allowing a hit until the fourth. He was also effective with his pickoff move, taking advantage of an aggressive Trailblazer in the third.

After leading off the fifth with a double, Jacob McKenzie scored on a wild pitch to put the Salukis up 2-0.

Shepard had 81 pitches upon his removal in the sixth, and was relieved for Jack MacIntosh, who collected the third out. He finished with five strikeouts and allowed just two hits on the day.

An error in the seventh helped Utah Tech get on the board, but McKenzie came up big for a second time as he laced an RBI single up the middle to keep SIU's advantage at two.

The top of the eighth then became an inning the Saluki bullpen would rather forget. After striking out the first batter, three relievers combined to allow six runs (four earned) on three hits, and one of the runs came via a wild pitch. The battery did not help their own cause, each committing an error.

All of a sudden, the Salukis found themselves down 7-3 in the eighth. The top of the ninth echoed a similar sentiment, as two more errors, combined with another run-scoring wild pitch, widened the deficit to six.

Julio Guerrero knocked in his second RBI in the bottom of the ninth, but the game was too far out of reach, and Utah Tech secured the 9-4 victory.

Free passes have been a recurring issue for the Salukis, who walked 10 more batters Saturday while hitting two. They also committed five errors, leading to three of the nine runs being unearned.

Talan Kelly earned the win and improved his record to 5-0, while Jack MacIntosh dropped to 3-2 after 1.2 innings pitched out of the bullpen.

UP NEXT
Southern Illinois and Utah Tech will battle for the series victory Sunday at 1 p.m.

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