Southern Illinois News

Salukis Drop Series Opener with Illini, 3-2

Southern Illinois baseball dropped its series opener to Illinois, 3-2, Friday afternoon at The Plex on the campus of Northeast Mississippi Community College.
 
Southern (8-11) fell behind early as Illinois put a two-spot on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning. Illini leadoff man Danny Doligale worked a walk before Braden Comia followed up with a home run to give Illinois the advantage.
 
Cole Christman led off the third inning with a double down the line in left and Nathan Bandy scored him after coming away with a two-out RBI double to left to cut the Illinois lead in half.
 
SIU looked to put more runs up in the fourth after Pier-Olivier Boucher led off the inning with his second triple of the season, but the Salukis failed to capitalize as Illini starting pitcher Riley Gowens picked up a fly ball and a pair of groundouts to get out of the jam.
 
Southern would get another clutch at bat from Christman in the fifth inning as the catcher belted his fourth home run of the season out to left to tie the game at two apiece.  
 
SIU had three hits in the fifth, but the Illini turned just their third double play of the year to end the threat.
 
After allowing two runs in the first, SIU starting pitcher Ben Chapman was able to put together six strong innings of work. The right-hander did not allow another run in the game and struck out five in six innings while allowing just three base hits.
 
Illinois (8-6) plated the go-ahead run in the eighth inning after a leadoff walk came around to score on a single to right field. With the bases loaded and two outs, Matthew Steidl would walk off the mound after getting a strikeout call to limit the Illini to just one run.
 
Senior Ryan Rodriguez led off the ninth with a double, but SIU was not able to move him past second base as Joseph Glassey closed out the game for Illinois.
 
SIU outhit Illinois 8-5 in the game, with Bandy, Christman, and Mathieu Vallee recording two hits each to lead the Dawgs. Comia had all three RBIs in the game for Illinois on a 2-for-4 day at the plate.
 
Gowens pitched eight innings and struck out 10 to pick up the win for Illinois.
 
UP NEXT
The Salukis will look to even the series Saturday at 1 p.m.
 
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