The Saluki baseball team will try to end a three-game skid in a mid-week battle with Murray State University 3 p.m. today.

The Salukis lost the last three games of the four-game series against the University of Evansville last weekend at Abe Martin Field. The Salukis have now lost nine of their last 10 games and have a record of 13-24 overall and 7-11 in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Murray State has a record of 14-25, but the Racers have won five-straight games.

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The game Wednesday is the first of three consecutive games against Ohio Valley Conference teams. The Salukis play at Austin Peay University Saturday and play the Governors at home Sunday.

Baseball coach Dan Callahan said the Salukis cannot play with the kind of lackluster performance they had last weekend.

The way we played Saturday and Sunday, I don’t know if we can say any team will be a mediocre opponent, Callahan said. We’ve got to play better than we played this weekend or we couldn’t beat the college for the visually impaired.

I hate to say this but we are not very good right now. We have dreamt up more ways to lose than any team I have been associated with.

Salukis play host for home season finale

The SIUC softball team plays host for its final home games of the season this afternoon at IAW Fields.

The Salukis (23-10-1, 5-3) face the University of Evansville (24-14, 5-3) at 3 p.m. SIUC, which lost only four home games last year, has already dropped six on the season.

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Both teams enter the contest losers of three of their last four games and in a four-way tie for third place in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Salukis are looking to end a three-game losing skid.

SIUC is coming off one its worst performances of the season. The Salukis were throttled by Southwest Missouri State University 13-6 in the second game of a doubleheader Sunday.

SIUC’s pitching staff hopes to rebound from the setback. Sophomore pitchers Carisa Winters, Tracy Remspecher and freshman Erin Stremsterfer all had disappointing efforts against the Bears. Despite this, the Salukis still own the lowest ERA (1.20) in the conference.

The Aces should provide a good test. They lead the Valley in hits (275), runs scored (186) and runs batted in (154).

Heat’s Mashburn might be back for playoffs

Miami Heat forward Jamal Mashburn, who has been sidelined for two months with a fractured right thumb, has been cleared to practice and will likely be placed on the team’s postseason roster.

Mashburn suffered the injury when he landed hard on his right wrist and thumb after a dunk attempt in the second quarter of a Feb. 13 game against the Detroit Pistons. He underwent surgery two days later and was expected to be sidelined for at least eight weeks.

There is an outside chance Mashburn could be activated for Miami’s regular season finale in Atlanta. The Heat then have until 3 p.m. Monday to submit their playoff roster to the league.

Miami (55-24) is involved in a fight with the Indiana Pacers for the home-court advantage in case both teams meet in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Pacers (56-23) have a one-game lead over the Heat with three games remaining.

The 6-foot-8 Mashburn averaged 15.3 points and 5.0 rebounds in Miami’s first 46 games. Miami acquired Mashburn from Dallas in exchange for three players in February 1997. He played in 32 games the rest of the 1996-97 season for the Heat and averaged 13.4 points and 5.6 rebounds.

Mashburn, a first round pick of the Mavericks and the fourth overall selection in 1993, averaged a career-high 24.1 points for Dallas in 1994-95. He played in just 18 games in 1995-96 before undergoing knee surgery.