Southern Illinois University
44-16
Missouri State
30-27
Salukis fall to Bears in MVC Tournament Championship game
05/29/2022 | 6:20:00 | Baseball
The Southern Illinois University baseball team fell 13-3 to Missouri State in the MVC Tournament Championship game Sunday evening at Hammons Field.
The Salukis (44-16) were bidding to become the first Valley team since Wichita State in 2013 to lose its first game at the MVC Tournament and rattle off five-straight wins to take the title but ran out of gas Sunday.
After the first four batters reached for SIU and the Salukis jumped out to a 2-0 lead, the Bears scored 10-straight runs over the next six innings to build a lead that proved insurmountable. Southern, which had four errors in five games before Sunday's finale, committed a pair of costly errors in the sixth that kept the inning alive and allowed Missouri State to tack on a trio of insurance runs.
Southern got on the board first after Jack Rigoni homered on the third pitch of the game. J.T. Weber followed with a double and Kaeber Rog brought Weber in to score from second with a single to put SIU ahead 2-0 without recording an out.
Missouri State starting pitcher Adam Link settled in after that. After Southern's first four hitters reached safely, Link allowed just four hits over the next six innings and exited the game with the Bears comfortably ahead.
Southern, on the other hand, was forced to use five different pitchers in the winner-take-all contest. Matthew Steidl made his first start since his freshman year and lasted just an inning and a third before turning the ball over to Tanner Lewis. Lewis went two and two thirds and allowed just two earned runs on four hits. Trey McDaniel relieved Lewis and threw two innings and gave up just one earned run on three hits before handing the ball to Jake Kuntzendorf. Kutzendorf threw an inning and allowed three runs on the seventh inning home run before giving way to Jordan Gould, who threw a scoreless eighth.
After SIU went ahead in the top of the first, the Bears answered right back with a crooked number in the bottom-half of the frame. Missouri State used a single, a hit by pitch, a triple and a sacrifice fly to go ahead, 3-2.
Missouri State added to its lead in the bottom of the second when it used a hit by pitch and a pair of singles to plate two runs and push its advantage to 5-2. A Bears' solo home run grew SIU's deficit to four, 6-2 after four innings.
Southern had its chances. In the sixth, Ryan Rodriguez led off with a single and Grey Epps roped a single of his own to eventually give SIU runners on the corner with two outs but Southern couldn't get the timely hit it needed to drive in a run and close the gap.
The Saluki defense, which had been solid throughout the tournament, came unglued in the bottom of the sixth. A fly ball that got lost in the sun resulted in a hit to lead off the frame and it was an omen for what was to come. Three of MSU's four runs came after a pair of errors. A fielding error by Boucher allowed Spencer Nivens to move to second on his RBI-single. He then came around to score on an error by Grey Epps off the bat of Drake Baldwin. Weber then dropped a foul ball that got caught up in the wind but would have been the final out of the inning. Instead, Mason Hall crushed a two-run shot to put Missouri State ahead, 10-2.
Weber got a run back for Southern in the top of the seventh with a RBI-single to plate Rigoni. The Bears, unfortunately, countered with a three-run home run from Will Duff in the bottom of the seventh to give Missouri State a double-digit lead.
Southern pounded out 12 hits in its tournament finale, as four different Salukis recorded multi-hit games. Rigoni finished a triple shy of the cycle and Weber finished with three hits, which included a pair of doubles. Rodriguez and Epps each had a pair of hits as well.
Southern's run to its first MVC Tournament Championship game since 2012 was dotted with memorable performances from unlikely sources. Jordan Bloemer threw the longest outing of his Saluki career to earn the win over Evansville on May 28 while Ben Chapman earned his first career save in the win over the Aces and followed with his first win on the mound in nearly six weeks in Sunday's game one victory over the Bears. Nick Hagedorn, batting ninth in the lineup, hit four home runs in seven games while Pier-Olivier Boucher had a hit in six of seven games, which included four multi-hit games.
The Salukis will now have to await their fate during tomorrow's NCAA Selection Show at 11 a.m. on ESPN2. Southern's body of work is impressive. The Salukis are one of only seven teams in the nation with 44 wins. SIU won every weekend series it played this season which included all seven Valley series and it won its first regular season title since 1990.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Link,Adam (6-5)
L: Steidl, Matthew (7-4)
Batting:
2B: Rigoni, Jack 1 ; Weber, J.T. 2
HR: Rigoni, Jack 1
RBI: Rigoni, Jack 1 ; Weber, J.T. 1 ; Rog, Kaeber 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Rigoni, Jack 2 ; Weber, J.T. 1
Batting:
2B: Baldwin,Drake 1
3B: Greer,Mason 1
HR: Hull,Mason 1 ; Duff,Will 1 ; Jenkins,Walker 1
RBI: Nivens,Spencer 1 ; Baldwin,Drake 1 ; Hull,Mason 2 ; Greer,Mason 2 ; Cratic,Cam 1 ; Duff,Will 3 ; Jenkins,Walker 2
SF: Cratic,Cam 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Nivens,Spencer 2 ; Baldwin,Drake 2 ; Hull,Mason 1 ; Greer,Mason 1 ; Kotowski,Dakota 1 ; Wood,Grant 3 ; Duff,Will 1 ; Jenkins,Walker 2
HBP: Baldwin,Drake 1 ; Wood,Grant 1
