SPRINGFIELD – Southern Illinois jumped on Missouri State early with a pair of four-run innings to put a damper on MSU head coach Keith Guttin’s final game at Hammons Field.
The Salukis (31-25, 12-15 Missouri Valley Conference) scored four runs in both the first and second frames and piled up 10 extra-base hits in an 18-11 win, breaking a tie with the Bears (23-32, 11-16) in the league standings on the final day of the regular season. Missouri State will take the No. 8 seed into the MVC Baseball Championship and begin play at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, against fifth-seeded UIC in Evansville, Ind.
After SIU’s big first inning, Cody Kelly sent the first pitch the Salukis threw over the wall for his 12th homer of the year, the visitors scored four more in the second, and Zack Stewart led off the bottom half with his 21st long ball, tying for 10th in MSU history in a single season.
SIU made it 9-2 in the third and used three walks and three hits for a five-run fifth. The Bears cut the margin to 14-5 with an RBI fielder’s choice from Logan Chambers and RBI singles from Izzy Lopez and Kelly in the fifth, then scored two more on a Carter Bergman RBI single and Lopez ground out in the sixth for 14-7.
The Salukis added three extra-base hits in the seventh for three runs, and Bergman hit another RBI single that was followed by a two-out error for an 17-9 SIU lead.
Southern Illinois scored once more in the ninth, and Bergman swatted a two-run homer in the bottom half for his first career three-hit game and a career-best four RBI. It was also MSU’s 110th round-tripper of the season, tying the 2022 club for second in school history.
Nick Rodriguez (36) and Kelly (24) extended their respective streaks of reaching base safely.
