Despite one of their best records in recent years, the SIU baseball team, much like the rest of the Missouri Valley Conference, was no match for the Wichita State Shockers at this season’s MVC tournament.

The Salukis appeared poised to make a deep run in the MVC tournament, winning nine of their last 12 games and earning the fifth seed in the tournament.

The Salukis took on Northern Iowa May 21 in the opening round of the tournament. Junior pitcher Cody Adams pitched 8 and 2/3 innings and gave up three earned runs while striking out seven.

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“I told pitching coach Tim Dixon before the game I wanted to change my approach,” Adams said. “It sounded kind of selfish but I told him instead of trying to pitch for the team I wanted to pitch for myself. He told me to do it, and that that’s how I should approach the game.”

With the win, the Salukis (34-23,12-12) moved to the second round, where they played the host school – the 13th ranked Shockers (48-17, 19-5).

The Shockers pounced on starter Shawn Joy early and chased out the senior after five innings. Joy gave up 13 hits and nine earned runs as Wichita State put the Salukis in the losers bracket, 12-0.

The Salukis beat rival Creighton (37-21, 16-8), 6-5 in the next game. Junior catcher Mark Kelly and senior infielder Adam Hills each went 2-3 in the game with three total RBI’s. With the win, SIU headed to the finals of the losers’ bracket to take on the Missouri State Bears.

The Bears (40-17, 18-6) jumped on SIU early, scoring eight runs in the second inning. SIU scored four runs in the fourth inning to bring the score to 9-6. But late insurance runs for the Bears put the game out of reach as SIU lost 11-6, finishing third in the tournament.

“I felt we finished where we should’ve on the year,” head coach Dan Callahan said. “There was no way we were going to beat Wichita State. We knew how hot they were and with their starting pitching as good as it’s been, they probably feel they can beat anybody.”

Both Adams and Hills made the all-tournament team. Hills went 8-12 with three RBI’s and two runs scored in four tournament games.

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Missouri State went on to lose to Wichita State in the final, 12-10. The Shockers would go on to lose to Florida State in the NCAA Super Regionals.

The 34 wins were the second most scored by the Salukis under coach Callahan, who has coached SIU for the last 15 seasons. Along with a 12-12 record in the Missouri Valley Conference, the Salukis also put both Kelly and Hills on the MVC first team.

Kelly batted .371 on the year with 43 RBI’s leading the Salukis in both categories. This came after a 2007 season where he drove in more than 60 runs and was named to the MVC first team.

“I was pitched to a lot differently this year,” Kelly said. “I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself and try to do too much. It wouldn’t have been fair to me to try and repeat the year I had in 2007. I would’ve not only driven myself crazy, but the team as well.”

Hills, a senior out of Colorado Springs, Colo., ended his college career with a .320 batting average, 21 RBI’s and 34 runs scored in 2008.

As a team, SIU batted a combined .291 with 539 hits, which was good enough to place fourth in the MVC this season.

Ian Preston can be reached at

536-3311 ext. 282 or [email protected].