Baseball Loses to No. 2 Wichita State, 9-0

May 26, 2005

By Jeff Honza
www.SIUSalukis.com

WICHITA, Kan. - Freshman Travis Banwart posted a career-high nine strikeouts and gave up three hits in seven shutout innings to lead second-seeded Wichita State (47-21) to a 9-0 win over third-seeded Southern Illinois (38-20) earlier today at the 2005 ConAgra Foods Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

"We got beat in all three phases of the game today. They outpitched us, outhit us and played better defense," said SIU head coach Dan Callahan. "It was a sloppy game and we didn't deserve to win."

MVC Player of the Year P.J. Finigan hooked up with Banwart in Carbondale on May 8. In that matchup, Finigan two-hit the Shockers, while Banwart suffered his only loss of the season after allowing six hits and three runs in four innings.

However, when the two went head-to-head today, it was Banwart who prevailed.

Playing in front of a loud hometown crowd of 3,510, the Wichita native, Banwart retired his first five batters of the game, before issuing a walk to Hunter Harrigan, allowing a single to Erik Alvarez and hitting Ryan Hypke with a pitch in the second inning.

After all that happened with two outs, SIU couldn't push a run across, and as a result, left the bases loaded in what turned out to be its only threat of the day.

If there was any highlight the Salukis had offensively, it was when Kevin Koski singled to extend his hitting streak to 34 games in the third inning, but from then on, Banwart carved up the Dawgs.

Following Koski's hit, Banwart struck out six of the next eight Salukis, including five-straight between the third and fourth innings. He ended his outing by retiring 15 of 16 batters over five frames.

With the way Banwart was mowing down the Salukis, he didn't need much run support, but received a big lead anyway.

WSU plated three two-out runs off four hits in the third, where Finigan struggled.

With two away after the league's Freshman of the Year, Damon Sublett, struck out, Finigan gave up a two-RBI single to Derek Schermerhorn, plunked Joe Muich and gave up a run-scoring hit to Danny Jackson, as the Shockers took a 3-0 lead.

SIU's defense crumbled behind Finigan in the fourth and fifth innings when a pair of errors by third baseman Matt Brewer led to three unearned runs, which helped push WSU's lead to 7-0.

"I was disappointed with how we played defense today because the game could have very well been 3-0 going into the seventh, but we gave away four runs in those two innings," Callahan said.

Aided by three walks, a hit batsman, an error and a wild pitch, the Shockers added to more runs in the eighth to put the finishing touches on their 9-0 shutout.

Banwart (7-1), who also walked one, threw 98 pitches in his seven-inning gem.

Finigan (9-3), who suffered his first loss since Apr. 2 (at Creighton) scattered seven hits, allowed seven runs (three unearned), walked three and struck out six in four innings.

"P.J. has not had many bad starts this year, but today was one of them," stated Callahan. "His pitch count was high midway through the third inning and it was just a matter of time before we had to go to our bullpen. With the way things were going, it had to be sooner than later."

Finigan mentioned after the game that he felt the Shocker hitters changed their approach against him this time around.

"When we were in Carbondale, they took a lot of swings where they came out of their shoes and really tried to drive the ball," explained Finigan. "Today, they were relaxed, battled with me and just tried to put the ball in play."

Shocker hitters fouled off a lot of pitches against Finigan, and after awhile it got frustrating.

"They made me battle for every out, and that's a credit to them," said Finigan. "I just couldn't find that putaway pitch that I've had the last couple weeks."

WSU saw eight of its nine starters in the lineup collect at least one hit, as the Shockers outhit SIU, 10-3.

Jackson and Blake Hurlbutt combined for four of those hits, as each had two apiece.

Koski, along with Finigan and Alvarez, teamed up for SIU's quiet three hits, as Saluki hitters struck out 13 times on the day. Koski's 34-game hitting streak now ties for second in league history with current WSU first baseman Schermerhorn.

Koski's lone hit also marked his 91st of the season, as he broke the school's all-time single-season record in hits. Koski surpassed Dave Wrona, who had 90 hits in 1990.

Although today's loss was disappointing, it's one SIU has already put behind them.

"The word that I use quite often when talking about this club is resiliency. We have the ability to bounce back because we have a group of players that play hard, work hard and take a lot of pride in the way they play the game," said Callahan.

"As far as I'm concerned, today is over, and there will be very little or no discussion about this game the rest of the evening."

SIU drops to the loser's bracket for the first time since 2002, and the Salukis will play either Indiana State or Creighton in an elimination game tomorrow at 11 a.m., CST. If SIU wins, then it will play again at 7 p.m.

As tournament play moves along, pitching seems to become even a bigger factor in determining how far teams go.

SIU, who entered this year's tourney with probably the best starting rotation in the league, has had shaky starts in each of its first two games. That might concern Callahan heading into tomorrow.

"I'd like to think it's not a trend," said Callahan in regards to the pair of rocky starts. "Tyler (Norrick) wasn't good yesterday and P.J. wasn't real strong today, but we still have two starters left that we'll use in the next two games if we get to that point."

Callahan is referring to Bryan Rueger (9-3) and freshman Ryan Terry (5-0), who are a combined 14-3. As of now, it's undetermined which of the two will start in the morning.

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