CARBONDALE, Ill. --- UC Irvine and Southern Illinois danced around some impressive pitching before the offense busted out for four runs in the 10th to secure the 6-2 victory Friday afternoon at Itchy Jones Stadium.
Southern Illinois (10-12) extended the game in the ninth inning with a big pinch-hit double from Brad Harrison to tie things up at 2-2. SIU could have had more, but Alex Lyon, after walking to lead off the inning, overslid second base on a steal attempt. Austin Ulick followed on the 13th pitch of his at-bat against
Nick Anderson making his first appearance on the mound this month, and would score on Harrison's hit.
The 'Eaters (12-8) got the offense going in the 10th starting with a leadoff Chrisitan Koss walk and sac bunt from
Matt Reitano.
Jake Palmer singled to put runners on the corners, and then an astute hit-and-run from
Parker Coss in which the Salukis couldn't get either runner out on the grounder to SS allowing Koss to score the go-ahead run.
Ryan Fitzpatrick wrapped the first pitch he saw around the LF foul pole to open the lead up to 6-2.
The offense didn't get going until the sixth inning when Connor Kopach and Logan Blackfan strung together some two-out hits to give SIU the 1-0 lead. UCI countered in the seventh on an RBI double from
Jacob Castro, and then took the lead in the eighth inning on some two-out hitting from
Konnor Zickefoose shooting a ball into right field to give UC Irvine the 2-1 lead in the eighth after
Matt Reitano started the rally with a double off the second base bag.
Pitching set the tone early as
Andre Pallante and Michael Baird matched each other on the mound with two-hitters through five innings. Pallante allowed just the one run striking out 10 in eight innings of work. Baird allowed two runs on seven hits, but K'd eight Anteaters along the way as neither starter figured in the decision.
Jordan Bocko scored the win despite allowing the tying run put on by
Nick Anderson in the ninth, Bocko's second win of the season. Trey McDaniel suffered his third loss of the season allowing a run in 1.2 innings given up by 2017 Pitcher of the Year semifinalist, Ryan Netemeyer who allowed three runs in his 0.2 innings of work.
Fitzpatrick cleaned up his day that started 0-for-4 with the home run, his third of the season and second in as many games, adding three RBI. Zickefoose notched a pair of hits along with a stolen base, and he and
Parker Coss each had a run and RBI on the day.
Ulick, Blackfan, and Kopach each had two-hit days as part of seven Saluki hits. Ulick had a pair of doubles as his hits.
The 'Eaters and Salukis now forge on into the weekend with a lot of the action up in the air with possible weather moving in. The final two games of the series are scheduled for Saturday, March 24 and Sunday, March 25 with 12:00 p.m. Pacific time starts (2:00 p.m. local time). Any updates or changes will be communicated through ucirvinesports.com or any of the Anteater social media channels
