Ernie Banks was famous for saying, let’s play two, but maybe two was not the way to go for the SIUC baseball team this weekend as the players pulled double-duty as grounds keepers also.

Even though the Salukis (9-10, 3-1) took three of the four games from Bradley University (13-5, 1-3), a new order will have to be put in for Turface, a drying agent used to solidify the infield dirt.

This is a side-note, but I thought our guys did a pretty good job as far as trying to get the field playable, and working with the tarp, SIUC coach Dan Callahan said. That tarp can wear you out, and I thought our players did a pretty commendable job from that standpoint.

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Through the weekend, it was tough to decide who the competition was, mother nature or Bradley. Saturday’s double-header was played through a series of downpours, and Sunday’s games were postponed by the weather twice until game two was finally called off after junior shortstop Frankie Jaramillo’s bat flew into the Saluki dugout while following through on a swing due to being wet.

Freshman center fielder Joe Schley said the conditions definitely were ideal for Baseball over the weekend.

It’s tough because your feet slide all over the place, and center field is the worst because there’s mud and you can’t get real good jumps (on the ball), so you’ve got to be spotted up in the right position, he said.

While the weather was the focus point of the weekend, Southern’s improvement, both at the plate and on the mound, did not go unnoticed.

After dropping seven of nine games during the team’s spring trip March 9-16, Southern came back to regroup in its opening weekend of the Missouri Valley Conference schedule.

The Salukis were embarrassed 14-1 in game one Saturday, but then battled back to win 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth in game two behind the bat of freshman third baseman Jerry Hairston, who delivered the game winning hit down the left field line to score junior catcher Bret Horace from second base. The pitching of freshman Jason Frasor and senior Dave Farrow also contributed heavily to the victory.

Senior catcher Tim Kratochvil, who played left field in game two Saturday, made a game saving catch against the wall in the top of the ninth inning while battling the sun in its only appearance of the weekend.

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That was a tough play, and he took a very suspect route on it, but he hung with it, Callahan said. In fact, if we had scored another run, he would not have even been out there.

Sunday, the Salukis took both ends of the double-header, 3-2 and 8-4, and received a solid starts from sophomore Dave Piazza and junior Chris Schullian, who threw six shutout innings before surrendering four runs on three hits in the seventh inning of game two.

SIUC struck early in game one Sunday with back to back doubles by senior designated hitter Mike Russell and junior first baseman Aaron Jones in the first inning that scored two runs, and junior second baseman Jay Mansavage scored from third, after doubling, on a ground ball to shortstop by Kratochvil in the fourth inning to insure the win.

Four unearned runs in the sixth inning for Southern held up in game two, but the Salukis added two more tallies in the seventh to close the game.

Last season, Southern started the season with a mirror image of this weekend, taking three-of-four from BU, but then faltered from then on; but Callahan said he believes his team is vastly different from a year ago.

I think we have tougher kids, and kids that care more about winning, he said. I was very pleased with our pitching. I’ve been very hard on our pitchers because they haven’t done the job in the past couple-three weeks, but other than the first game on Saturday, I thought out pitchers came back despite my criticism and did a good job.