SIUC may be catching Indiana State University at the wrong time.

The Sycamores have won 14 of their last 16 games and are only one game behind first place Wichita State University in the Missouri Valley Conference. As a team, the Sycamores are hitting a red-hot .342.

The Salukis, on the other hand, have lost seven of their last 10. SIUC has a four-game losing streak going into the doubleheader against ISU on Wednesday.

Advertisement

Although the Salukis are struggling, they did come close to beating Wichita State in at least two of the four games last weekend.

Sophomore infielder Steve Ruggeri said if the Salukis play as well as they did against the nationally ranked Shockers, they should be able to beat anyone in the conference.

We played halfway decent against Wichita State, Ruggeri said. We played with them three of the four games. They (the Shockers) kept subbing people, and we just ran out of gas. But this Wednesday should be a lot more evenly matched. I think it is going to be tough, but if we play like we did last weekend, we should come out on top.

One of the difficulties presented by the mid-week conference doubleheader is that it breaks up the four-man rotation Callahan has used during the weekend games.

Junior pitcher Dave Piazza starts the weekend, followed by junior pitcher Jason Frasor, senior pitcher Chris Schullian and sophomore pitcher Jay Schwerman.

Piazza is the only pitcher with enough rest to start on Wednesday, but more than likely Frasor will have to pitch the second game with only three days of rest.

I like to think we can at least start him (Frasor) and maybe go with him for a little ways, Callahan said. Then, hopefully, he can come back on Sunday. That’s asking a lot from him. You can’t expect someone to throw a complete game on Wednesday and then expect them to come back and do it again on Sunday. But I would like to think they can both pitch on Wednesday and come back and give at least a few innings on Sunday.

Advertisement*

The Salukis come into the game with a record of 12-19 and 6-6 in conference play. The Sycamores are 18-6-1 and 7-1 in the conference.

Callahan said the Sycamores may be the hottest squad in the conference, and the Salukis cannot take anything for granted when they play them.

They’re for real, Callahan said. Here they are near the top. They’re a pretty good ball club right now.