The SIU baseball team keeps beating Ohio Valley opponents. The Salukis downed Belmont last Tuesday and Murray State last Wednesday.
The two wins played out on opposite ends of the baseball spectrum. In the 3-2 win against Belmont at Itchy Jones Stadium, there was pretty good relief pitching, but not so in the Dawgs' 11-9 shootout win against the Murray State Racers.
"We knew they were going to be 'bullpen' games for us," SIU head coach Ken Henderson said. "We knew we were going to have to score some runs midweek."
That's because of the rather erratic nature of the Salukis' bullpen performances. In the 3-2 win, it was a pitcher's duel of sorts, with SIU allowing only five hits and their scoring concentrated into two innings. SIU scored one run in the first, but not again until the fifth, when the Dawgs tacked on two more for a 3-0 lead.
Belmont trickled in two runs in the next four while SIU went scoreless. But SIU's relief pitchers and one particular defensive player kept the Belmont offense in check. Ryan Netemeyer got his 34th career save in the ninth, but may not have if not for right fielder Kenton Crawford.
Crawford let it all hang out with a diving catch of a screaming line drive down the right field line in the fourth inning. Crawford revisited that defensive play in the ninth, when Netemeyer hung a pitch to a Belmont batter.
The second mid-week win was the polar opposite, as SIU and the Murray State relievers could not find the plate.
"Early in the game, we gave up seven runs because of too many walks," Henderson said. "But in the last five innings of the game, we didn't walk anyone. That last five gave our offense a chance to win the game."
SIU jumped out to 2-0 lead against Murray State by the second inning, but fell behind the Racers in the third inning and trailed until the bottom of the eighth. That's when marginally better relief pitching and a guy named Logan Blackfan took over.
With two men on in the bottom of the eighth and two outs, SIU's Blackfan lined one over the right field fence to stake the Dawgs to their 11-9 lead.
Blackfan said he was just trying to make contact and put the ball in the gale that was howling out of the stadium.
"I knew if I got the ball into the air it would go," Blackfan said after the win.
Now the Dawgs travel to Tennessee Tech for three games this weekend against the no. 21 team in the nation.
The Golden Eagles had won 22 consecutive games going into Friday's first of three.
They lead the nation in almost all offensive categories. So this game will show if the Dawgs have made any progress after being swept by another top 25 team, Dallas Baptist, last weekend.
