SIU baseball got the offense going in an 11-5 win against Memphis (9-14) on Saturday.

The Salukis (13-8-1) got 11 hits while going 6-11 with runners in scoring position. The win gave SIU its fourth series win of the season.

“Offense woke up today and took a lot of good swings,” said coach Ken Henderson. “We had some quality approaches at the plate and it’s encouraging to see.”

Sophomore pitcher Michael Baird (4-1, 2.12 ERA) earned the win giving up three runs on seven hits in six innings pitched. Senior pitcher Matt Ferguson (3-3, 3.89 ERA) suffered the loss for Memphis.

“It wasn’t one of my sharpest outings I’ve had,” Baird said. “My slider wasn’t as good as it could have been, but our offense put runs up and our defense was outstanding today.”

Baird gave up two runs early in the second inning and didn’t give up another run until the sixth.

Sophomore designated hitter Braden Mosley tied the game in the fourth on a single to left and put the game out of reach with a 3-run home run in the sixth inning.

“Coach [Ryan] Strain talked to us about toughening up with runners in scoring position and being ‘that guy’ to drive them in and we responded,” Mosley said. “This series win builds confidence for us because we’ve dropped a few close games we felt like we could have had.” 

Seven Salukis drew a walk between eight Memphis pitchers and loaded the bases 10 times the game.

“All-around it was one of the better games we’ve played all year,” Henderson said. “We turned a couple of double plays, our pitching was pretty good and our offense showed up so overall we played a good ballgame.

The Salukis play Austin Peay at 5 p.m. on Tuesday at Itchy Jones Stadium.

Ted Ward can be reached at [email protected] or 618-534-3303