A few good nights’ rest helped SIU baseball recharge and it showed in a 7-3 win over Illinois State on Friday.

Coming off a 7-1 loss to Arkansas State on Monday, in which the team arrived back in Carbondale early that day, the Salukis bounced back with a better performance.

“We were ready to go tonight and definitely brought some energy to come play,” coach Ken Henderson said. “We had some good at-bats with two outs and got a good outing from [Chad] Whitmer to set the tone opening with a win in the series.”

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Junior pitcher Chad Whitmer (4-2, 2.43 ERA) earned the win giving up three runs on six hits in seven innings. ISU senior pitcher Steve Heilenbach (4-2, 2.93 ERA) suffered the loss allowing five runs on seven hits in 4 1/3 innings.

“I kept the hitters off balanced and confused and changed speeds as much as I could,” Whitmer said. “I knew I was going to be throwing a day early but it didn’t really have too much affect on me other than I threw to Nick Hutchins today and he did a great job calling the game.”

The Salukis got the scoring started early in the second inning when sophomore infielder Connor Kopach doubled in two runs followed by junior outfielder Dyllin Mucha’s two-run single.

Illinois State cut the lead in half on freshman infielder Derek Parola’s two-run home run in the bottom half of the second.

SIU scored one run in the fifth, seventh and ninth to put the game away.

The Dawgs hit well with two outs, scoring six of their seven runs with two down and going 5-13 in those situations.

Game Two of the series begins at 2 p.m. Saturday. Junior pitcher Joey Marciano (2-4, 4.53 ERA) gets the start.

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