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Baseball
Panthers Pummel Saluki Pitching, Win 8-2
May 12, 2007 PANTHERS PUMMEL SALUKI PITCHING, WIN 8-2 CARBONDALE, Ill. - After a rough outing on Friday, the University of Northern Iowa baseball team rallied to score eight runs on 17 hits off Saluki pitching to slay Southern Illinois 8-2 in Carbondale. Five Panthers collected three hits on the day, including Dane Embury (Kelowna, British Columbia/Kelowna), who snapped out of a weeks-long slump with a three-hit, four RBI day. Brandon Douglas (St. Charles, Iowa/I-35) was a perfect 3-3 on the afternoon and raised his average 11 points in three hours to .355. The three-hit effort put Douglas squarely in the middle of a three-way logjam at the top of the Panther scoresheet. Eric Hoffmann (Erskine, Minn./Win-E-Mac) and Deric Manrique (Sioux City, Iowa/North) kept pace with Douglas with three hits each, as did Travis Hendrix (Sonora, Calif/Sonora). The Panther staff, buoyed by a sterling six-plus inning effort by Nick Kirk (Dubuque, Iowa/Wahlert), held up its end of the game as well. Kirk allowed two runs and scattered nine hits while striking out five to earn his fourth win of the season. Boone Bugger (Bozemon, Mont./Bozemon) finished the seventh inning and pitched into the eighth before Tim Flattery (Fort Dodge, Iowa/St. Edmond) closed the game out. The Panthers began game two of the series much as they began the opener. Manrique singled on the first pitch of the game and moved to third on a hit and run with Hoffmann. Manrique scored on a sacrifice fly by Douglas and the Panthers left the top of the first with a 1-0 lead.
The lead didn't last long, however, as SIU knotted the game at one with a run in the bottom of the second. Two straight scoreless innings by both teams sent the game into the fifth with the score still tied at one. The similarities to the opener ended After Hoffmann and Douglas reached on back-to-back hits in the fifth, Embury drilled a 2-1 offering into centerfield, scoring both Hoffmann and Douglas and giving UNI a 3-1 advantage through five innings. Travis Hendrix (Sonora, Calif./Sonora) roped the first pitch of the sixth inning down the right field line for a leadoff double, moved to third base on a groundout to shortstop by Eddie Almonte (Santo Domingo, DR), and scored on an errant throw over to third by Saluki pitcher Cody Adams. Curt Bradley (Colombia, MO/Rock Bridge) followed Almonte with a double to right-centerfield and later scored on a Hoffmann line drive to center. Douglas followed suit with a double over the centerfielder's head, scoring Hoffmann from first and giving UNI a 6-1 lead. Embury drove a 2-1 fastball through the left side to score Douglas from second base and give UNI a 7-1 advantage. Jordan Kraayenbrink (Decorah, Iowa/Decorah) missed a three-run home run by a matter of inches with a warning-track flyout to the deepest part of the field. Four runs on five hits in the sixth inning gave UNI a six-run lead through the top of the sixth. Southern Illinois notched its second run in the seventh but Embury countered by driving in UNI's eighth run in the eighth. Embury's RBI single to centerfield scored Douglas and gave the Panthers an 8-2 lead. Flattery took it from there, pitching the ninth and slamming the door on the Salukis to earn an 8-2 victory for the Panthers. The Panthers improve to 21-25 on the season, 6-14 in the Missouri Valley Conference. SIU falls to 30-19 overall, 10-10 in the Valley. The Panthers and Salukis wrap up their three-game set Sunday. First pitch is at 1 p.m. |
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