Although the Salukis accumulated more runs than the University of Evansville Purple Aces in three conference games this weekend, SIU still lost the series.

The SIU baseball team traveled to Evansville, Ind., for a weekend series against the University of Evansville Purple Aces. The Aces hosted the Salukis at Braun Stadium and haven’t beaten the Salukis at home since 2007.

The Aces ended the losing streak to SIU on Friday after Evansville won 3-2 on a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning.

SIU senior pitcher Cody Forsythe started for the Salukis on Friday. In nine innings pitched, Forsythe gave up two runs on seven hits and struck out four batters. Forsythe was given a no-decision loss since the game was tied when he was replaced by junior pitcher Aaron Snyder. Snyder pitched the 10th inning and allowed one run off of one hit and was given the loss.

SIU baseball coach Ken Henderson said Forsythe deserved the win.

“Cody was outstanding, and he deserves better,” Henderson said. “I know he’s a team guy and just wants to win the game, but if a guy continues to throw that well and does that great a job, he deserves to be rewarded, and our offense has to find a way to reward him in that situation.”

In the top of the first inning, the Salukis had the bases loaded but only scored one run. SIU senior outfielder Austin Montgomery hit a sacrifice fly ball that allowed junior infielder Jake Welch to score.

The Aces tied the game when Evansville sophomore outfielder Kevin Kaczmarski hit a deep sacrifice fly ball to right field and junior infielder Nick Hathcoat scored after he tagged up on third base to tie the score 1-1.

In the top of the seventh inning, SIU junior shortstop Ryan Rosthenhausler hit a sacrifice fly ball to left field to regain the lead 2-1.

To tie the game at 2-2, Evansville responded in the bottom of the seventh inning when freshman infielder Shain Showers hit an RBI single to the left side to score senior outfielder Andy Lasher.

In the bottom of the first extra inning, Evansville senior outfielder Jason Hockemeyer ripped a single though the left field gap, which allowed junior infielder David Patton to score and win the game 3-2.

In the Saturday game, the Salukis lost 5-4 after they allowed a two-run eighth inning.

The Salukis started the runs early when junior infielder Ryan Casillas and junior outfielder Wes Neece grabbed RBIs in the first two innings to tie the game at two.

SIU grabbed the lead when Neece homered to right field and led the game at 3-2.

After the Salukis jumped to a 4-3 lead at the top of the eighth, Evansville junior infielder Nick Hathcoat and Kaczmarski both posted RBI singles to score the game’s final runs.

In Sunday’s game, SIU posted 13 runs off of 20 hits to beat the Aces 13-5 — the team’s their first conference win of the year.

Southern Illinois started the offense with six runs in the top of the third inning. The first run came when Casillas hit a two-run single up the middle. After Casillas, junior third baseman Cody Daily, Neece and Rosthenhausler all hit RBIs to score the inning’s final four runs.

Evansville cut SIU’s lead to 6-5 after the Aces scored four unearned runs in the bottom of the third.

Casillas and Daily both hit RBI singles to increase the lead to 8-5 in the fourth.

Neece, Jones and Montgomery all posted RBI hits to score five runs in the seventh inning to take a commanding 13-5 lead.

Henderson said the team waited all year to see an offensive performance like Sunday’s.

“Those are the kind of hitters we thought we had all year, so we’ve been waiting for it to happen,” he said. “We’ve said we think it’s going to happen some day, and today it happened. Hopefully we can keep that going because the hitters looked good today, and they hit well.”

The Salukis travel to Cape Girardeau, Mo., on Tuesday to face off against the Southeast Missouri State University Redhawks at 5 p.m.