Saluki baseball finishes 1-3 in the weekend series against the Redbirds

In the weekend series against the Illinois State Redbirds (11-15, 3-1 MVC) April 2-4, the Saluki baseball team (20-6, 4-4 MVC) suffered three losses and claimed one win.

Southern lost the first game of the series 11-3 and they lost the first game of the double header on the second day 6-3 and won the second 8-4. The Salukis finished the series with another loss against the Redbirds 14-11.

Illinois State started the first game with a 7-0 run in the first six innings with runs by junior catcher Tyson Hays, junior infielder Kyle Soberano, freshman infielder Ryan Cermak, senior outfielder Jordan Libman, junior infielder Nick Gile and redshirt junior infielder Aidan Huggins.

The Salukis only scored three runs in the game by senior infielder Phillip Archer and senior infielder Ian Walters and that was not enough to combat the four more runs by Illinois State, giving them the win 11-3.

In the first game of the double-header, the Salukis scored the first two runs in the first inning with an RBI from senior infielder Nick Neville where Walters scored and a run from Neville.

Illinois State took the lead in the game by scoring five consecutive runs in the second, third, and fifth inning by Libman, sophomore outfielder Gunner Peterson, Hays and redshirt sophomore first baseman Jake McCaw.

Southern also scored a run in the fifth inning from a home run by Neville, making the score 5-3.

The Redbirds finished the game with a home run by Huggins in the sixth inning giving Illinois State the win 6-3.

The second game started with an RBI from SIU’s sophomore outfielder Tristan Peters that brought redshirt freshman outfielder Evan Martin to the home base.

Both teams had runs in the third inning, the Redbirds had a two RBI from Libman where Huggins and Soberano scored. 

The Salukis scored three runs in the third inning from Neville, Peters and Archer, bringing the score to 4-2.

The score remained close in the fourth inning with both teams scoring runs ending the inning with SIU in the lead 5-3.

Southern increased their lead in the sixth and seventh inning scoring two runs in the sixth inning from Peters and Archer and one run in the seventh inning from sophomore right-handed pitcher Ben Chapman giving the Salukis the win 8-4.

In the last game of the series Illinois State took an early scoring eight runs in the first four innings with runs by redshirt junior outfielder Jack Butler, Libman, Hays, McCaw, Soberano, Cermak and Huggins.

The Salukis scored four runs in the fifth inning with a 4 RBI by junior outfielder J. T. Weber where he, Peters, Neville and Martin scored.

Illinois State continued increasing their lead by scoring five runs in the sixth and seventh innings from Hays, Libman, Gile, Soberano and Cermak making the score 13-4.

Despites the Salukis’ scoring seven runs in the last innings, the Redbirds’ lead was too great to overcome and Illinois State won the game 14-11.

The Salukis will take the field again on April 6 against Austin Peay in Carbondale at 6 p.m. 

Staff reporter Janae Mosby can be reached at jmosby@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @mosbyj.

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