It took five hours, 10 minutes and two lightning delays, but Arkansas State extended SIU baseball’s losing streak to six games in a 10-8 contest Wednesday night.

The Red Wolves (14-17, 4-10 Sun Belt Conference) traded blows with the Salukis (5-27, 1-6), but came out on top after a two-run rally in the lightning-delayed eighth inning. 

Saluki pitchers allowed 11 walks Wednesday, walking five Arkansas State batters and hitting six more. Sophomore reliever Austin McPheron plunked three Red Wolves in 0.1 innings.

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SIU coach Ken Henderson said those walks and hit batters made the difference in the game.

“It’s hard to win like that,” Henderson said. “Sure, we had opportunities to score more, but eight runs should have won the game.”

Redshirt sophomore reliever Anthony Shimkus (0-4) suffered the loss for SIU after giving up a leadoff double to junior center fielder Austin Baker and an RBI single to junior designated hitter Matt Burgess.

Senior reliever Colton Kibler (2-1) picked up the win for Arkansas State with 3 innings of one-hit scoreless baseball.

Red Wolves senior first baseman Zach George extended his national-high on-base streak to 48 games with a walk to lead off the game. George and senior third baseman Lucas Feddersen led Arkansas State with 3 hits each. 

Junior right fielder Ty White drove in a game-high 3 runs for the Red Wolves.

Freshman shortstop Chase Slone led SIU with 3 hits. He and sophomore second baseman Will Farmer drove in 2 runs apiece for the Salukis.

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Henderson was pleased with his team’s offensive output but admitted SIU could have pushed across more runs.

“We scored eight runs and had 12 hits. That’s a pretty good night for us,”Henderson said. “But we left a lot of runners in scoring position.”

The Salukis face the Indiana State Sycamores in a three-game series starting at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Bob Warn Field in Terre Haute, Ind. 

Thomas Donley can be reached at [email protected] or at 536-3311 ext. 269.