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Western Illinois University Athletics

Baseball
Steve Roberts, WKU Athletics
5
Western Illinois WIU 1-6
14
Winner Southern Illinois SIU 7-1
Western Illinois WIU
1-6
5
Final
14
Southern Illinois SIU
7-1
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Western Illinois WIU 0 0 1 1 0 1 2 0 0 5 12 2
Southern Illinois SIU 6 1 0 0 4 2 1 0 X 14 12 1

W: Gould, Jordan (1-0) L: Beck, Johnny (0-1)

Game Recap: Baseball | | WIU Athletic Communications

Long Ball Hurts Leathernecks In Loss To Southern Illinois

The Salukis hit four home runs to score five of their 14 runs.

CARBONDALE, ILL.- Western Illinois (1-6) baseball suffered its fifth straight loss on Tuesday (March 1), losing to Southern Illinois (7-1) 14-5 at Carbondale. 
 
Southern Illinois jumped on Western Illinois right away in the first with a six-run inning. After a walk and single put runners on first and second, a fielding error by Western Illinois allowed the first Saluki to cross home plate. After another walk, Southern Illinois used a single to left to score two runners and take a 3-0 lead. Western Illinois got the next batter to fly out for the first out, but the Salukis followed up with back-to-back doubles to score three more runs and go up 6-0. Southern Illinois added a run in the second on their first home run of the game to take a 7-0 lead.
 
Western Illinois got on the board in the top of the third thanks to a two-out RBI single from Toby Allred. CJ Richmond followed that up with a single to put runners on first and second, but a strikeout got Southern Illinois out of the inning still ahead 7-1.
 
After a 1-2-3 inning on defense, WIU returned on offense in the fourth and added another run. The Leathernecks put runners on second and third thanks to a walk and hit by pitch, and Nick Mitchell made Southern Illinois pay with a single to center to score another run to make it a 7-2 deficit. WIU had runners at the corners with only one out, but the Salukis managed to surrender just the one run thanks to a double play.
 
The momentum flipped back to Southern Illinois in the fifth, thanks to a pair of home runs. The inning started with a dropped fly ball by WIU, and an infield single by the Salukis next batter put them ahead 8-2. SIU then smashed a two-run home run and a solo home run for back-to-back home runs to score another three runs and take an 11-2 lead.
 
Jack Sievers helped Western Illinois answer in the sixth with a single to left to score Adam Juran to score WIU's third run of the afternoon. Southern Illinois put two more runs on the board in the bottom of the sixth to take a ten-run advantage.
 
Western Illinois began the seventh inning with back-to-back singles from Kory Olsen and Derek Botaletto. Adam Juran was hit by a pitch to load the bases, which set up Dillon Sears to bring in two runs with a single to right to make it a 13-5 ball game. Southern Illinois hit their fourth home run of the contest on a solo home run to take a 14-5 advantage.
 
Despite the loss, Western Illinois saw a number of hitters have big days at the plate. Derek Botaletto went 3-5 with a run scored for his second three-hit game of the season. Dillon Sears went 2-3 with a pair of RBIs, a walk, and a run scored, bumping his average up to .320 on the season.
 
Nick Mitchell and Kory Olsen extended their hitting streaks to seven games. Olsen went 1-5 with two runs scored, while Mitchell batted 1-2 with an RBI, walk, and a stolen base.
 
Western Illinois will be back for a three-game series from Friday (March 4) through Sunday (March 6) against the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
 
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