Situational at bats key in 7-5 win over Southern Illinois

Wednesday, March 16

Reese Smith Jr. Field

3:00 PM

Middle Tennessee

Southern Illinois

Photo by: Bradley Lambert

3/16/2011 6:20:00 PM | Baseball

By: MT Athletic Communications

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Middle Tennessee mounted a come from behind win on Wednesday afternoon defeating Southern Illinois 7-5 and handing head coach Steve Peterson his 900th career win. The Blue Raiders (5-10) trailed 5-4 going into the seventh inning when they scored three runs to take the lead. Middle Tennessee then had solid pitching and defense to hold off the Salukis and notch the win. R-sophomore Joey McClung took the win on the mound after allowing just one hit and striking out three in 2.1 innings of work. R-freshman Paul Mittura picked up his second save of the year working 1.2 innings. Junior Justin Guidry guided the team offensively ending the day 3 for 4 with a double, RBI and scored two runs. The Blue Raiders had 10 hits on the day including good timely and situational at bats. Junior Matt Drake and freshman Ryan Stephens each recorded sacrifice flies while senior Tyler Acker was caught stealing but stalled the defense enough to allow a run to score. "It was a good team win. We had to do a lot of different things and the bullpen stopped them. I feel it is the best win of the season. We had to do so many unselfish things and really performed well when we needed to," head coach Steve Peterson said. Freshman Hank LaRue and senior Will Skinner each had two hits on the day while Acker ended play with two RBI. SIU scored first putting up three runs on five hits in the second for an early 3-0 lead. Middle Tennessee was stifled offensively in the first three innings but found its footing in the fourth. Guidry opened the inning with a double then scored the first Blue Raider run on an Acker groundout. The Blue Raiders added another run on a double by Skinner making the score 3-2. The Salukis added two more runs on five hits in the fifth taking its lead back out to three, 5-2. Thomas, who tripled to open the fifth, scored after a sac fly by Stephens making it 5-3 in favor of SIU. Then in the sixth, the Blue Raiders put themselves back within one run, 5-4, after Acker scored from third on a sac fly by Drake. Middle Tennessee tied the game at 5 on single by Guidry to score Stephens from second. Then Guidry scored on a bunt single to the pitcher by Acker giving the Blue Raiders their first lead, 6-5. Acker got caught trying to steal second allowing LaRue to score from second before he was caught giving the Blue Raiders another run making it 7-5 at the end of the seventh. Middle Tennessee will be back in action Friday, March 18 when it opens Sun Belt Conference action at Western Kentucky in a three-game weekend series. Friday's game is set for a 6 p.m. first pitch. The second game of the series, March 19, is set for a 3 p.m. first pitch and will air on CSS as the Sun Belt Game of the Week. The two schools will wrap-up the weekend on Sunday, March 20 at 1 p.m. Chip Walters will have the call on the Blue Raider Network throughout the weekend and live stats may be found on goblueraiders.com.