Southern Illinois University
38-13, 14-4
Indiana State
23-20, 8-10
Dawgs complete sweep of Indiana St; now alone atop MVC
05/15/2022 | 3:38:00 | Baseball
Carbondale, Il. … Saluki Baseball is alone in first place going into the final weekend of the MVC regular season for the first time ever* (see Saluki Notes below) after the Salukis beat Indiana St. 7-3 and Evansville lost at Dallas Baptist 11-4 Sunday. SIU's season-high seventh consecutive win raised the Salukis record to 38-13, 14-4. SIU leads UE by one game with three games to play in the MVC season.
2B Grey Epps' 5 RBIs and winning pitcher Trey McDaniel's five and one-thirds innings of one-run relief keyed the SIU win.
Epps, who had 8 RBIs over 4 at-bats Saturday and Sunday, gave SIU enough runs to win with a three-run bases-loaded double in the third inning to give SIU a 5-2 lead. He made it 7-2 two innings later with a two-run single.
McDaniel seemingly navigated rush-hour traffic enroute to his team and MVC-leading 8th victory of the season and the 20th of his career. He allowed nine hits (8 singles), walked one batter, threw 88 pitches, and stranded 12 Indiana St. base runners as he raised his 2022 record to 8-1. Pitching in a school-record 118th career game, McDaniel moved with two wins of the top 20 in career Saluki wins.
Matthew Steidl pitched a scoreless ninth inning to preserve the win, despite ISU loading the bases in that inning. The Sycamores stranded 16 runners for the game.
SIU RF Nathan Bandy drove in the game's first run in the second inning on a ground out.
The Sycamores took a 2-1 lead versus starter Jake Combs and McDaniel when they scored two runs on Keegan Watson's RBI single and a bases loaded hit batsman. Indiana St. added its third and final run in the seventh on a ground out versus McDaniel.
SIU hosts St. Louis University Tuesday at 6pm. Then, SIU begins play for its first MVC regular season championship since the 1990 season Thursday when it visits seventh Illinois St. Second place Evansville opens a three-game home series versus eighth place Valparaiso on Thursday.
SALUKI NOTES: * The 1980 Salukis led the MVC East going into the final weekend of the regular season. But, it was a two division MVC in those years and the champions of the East and West Divisions met in a best of 3 series to determine the conference champ. The 1984 Salukis were tied for the MVC regular season title going into the final weekend of the season and won the MVC regular season title … J.T. Weber did not homer in the weekend series. SIU's single-season HR record holder (18) remains one home run shy of the Saluki career HR record held by Robert Jones (36, 1983-86). Weber did not score or drive in a run Sunday. He remains in 6th place in career RBIs (150) and in 7th place in career runs scored (160) … LF Pier-Olivier Boucher had 6 hits and scored 6 runs in 4 games last week … Epps had 9 RBIs in the 3-game series … Kaeber Rog had two more hits Sunday and has a team-high 25 multi-hit games in 2022. He's walked 12 times in his last 6 games … SIU scored first Sunday and is now 27-1 when it scores first this season … The Salukis are 30-0 in 2022 when they lead a game after 8 innings … Sunday's win was Rhodes' 90th as SIU's coach … Southern has 28 MVC wins over the last two seasons … The Salukis are 23-7 at home this season and 54-17 in three seasons under Rhodes at Itchy Jones Stadium.
Listen to Coach Lance Rhodes post game on Saluki Radio by clicking here: https://siusalukis.com/watch/?Archive=6348&type=Archive
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: McDaniel, Trey (8-1)
L: Patzner, Luke (3-3)
Batting:
2B: Watson, Keegan 1 ; Diaz, Randall 1
RBI: Watson, Keegan 1 ; Gergely, Seth 1 ; Beck, Aaron 1
SH: Kido, Joe 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Schaffer, Jordan 1 ; Diaz, Randall 1 ; Stinson, Parker 1
HBP: Gergely, Seth 1
Batting:
2B: Epps, Grey 1
RBI: Rodriguez, Ryan 1 ; Epps, Grey 5 ; Bandy, Nathan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Rigoni, Jack 1 ; Rog, Kaeber 2 ; Rodriguez, Ryan 2 ; Boucher, Pier-Olivier 2
SB: Rigoni, Jack 1 ; Rog, Kaeber 1 ; Boucher, Pier-Olivier 2
CS: Epps, Grey 1
HBP: Weber, J.T. 1
