COLUMBIA, Mo. – University of Southern Indiana Baseball opened its five-game road swing with a 14-6 loss to the University of Missouri Tuesday afternoon at Taylor Stadium in Columbia, Missouri. USI is 12-5 this season, while Missouri goes to 15-2.
Opened the first inning with a bang when graduate centerfielder
Khi Holiday blasted a ground-rule double to left center. A wild pitch and two batters later, Holiday scored the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly by senior shortstop
Clayton Slack.
The 1-0 lead lasted until the bottom of the first when the Tigers scored three times to take a 3-1 advantage. Missouri would build the lead to eight runs, 9-1, with a tally in the third and five more in the fourth.
USI battled back into the contest and cut the deficit to 9-5 with a four-run fifth inning. Senior first baseman
Patrick McLellan kicked off the rally with a three-run blast to left to make the score 9-4. The home run was McLellan's team-best third of the season.
The Screaming Eagles sliced the margin to 9-5 when Slack scored on a RBI single by senior designated hitter/catcher
Micajah Wall. The four-run deficit would be as close as USI would come the rest of the way.
Missouri would re-extend the lead to six, 11-5, with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth. USI got a tally back in the sixth when Martin scored from first on a hit by Slack and an error by the Tigers to make it 11-6.
The Tigers would go on to seal the 14-6 result with a three-run seventh to finish the scoring in the contest.
At the plate, Martin and McLellan led the way with three hits and three RBIs, respectively.
On the bump, USI junior right-hander
Levin East started and took the loss. East (2-2), the first of 10 USI hurlers, allowed three runs on four hits, while striking out one in two innings of work.
Up Next for the Screaming Eagles:
USI continues its five-game road swing this weekend when it visits Southern Illinois for a three-game series, March 13-15, in Carbondale, Illinois. First pitch Friday is scheduled for 6 p.m, while Saturday's contest is slated for 2 p.m. and Sunday's finale is set for 1 p.m.
SIU enters this afternoon's contest at SIU Edwardsville with a 6-8 record and has won five of its last seven games.
SIU leads the all-time series with USI, 6-1, after winning both meetings last season. The Salukis defeated the Screaming Eagles in Carbondale last year, 16-12 and 7-0, and have won the last five meetings since the Screaming Eagles made the jump to Division I. USI's lone victory over SIU came in 1989, 6-2, in Carbondale.
