May 29, 2022

By: Will Becque

Southern Illinois Athletics

The Southern Illinois University baseball team scored eight runs over the first four innings of play and scored at least one run in four of the first six innings to defeat Missouri State, 9-6, and force a winner-take-all MVC Championship game on Sunday afternoon.

Pier-Olivier Boucher (Saint-Joseph-de-Beauce, Que.) and Nick Hagedorn each crushed a pair of home runs and notched three-hit games while the pitching tandem of Noah Farmer and Ben Chapman held a Bears’ offence that came into the game averaging 10 runs a game in the MVC Tournament to just six.

Farmer, throwing on one full day of rest, allowed just one earned run on six hits in his four innings of work. He gave the ball to Ben Chapman, who earned the win after he threw five innings and allowed five earned runs on five hits with five strikeouts.

Southern got on the board first courtesy of a solo home run from Boucher in the top of the second inning.

The Salukis hung a five-spot in the top of the third. Nick Hagedorn crushed a one-out solo home run and Southern put runners on the corners for Ryan Rodriguez, who laced a single to plate the second run of the frame. Boucher then cleared the bases with his second blast of the game to put SIU ahead, 6-0.

In the fourth, Nathan Bandy led off with a single and Nick Hagedorn brought him in to score with his second home run of the contest. It was Hagedorn's fourth home run in his last four games.

Southern continued to pile on in the sixth. SIU used three-straight singles and a deep fly ball off the bat of Rog to go ahead, 9-1. The Bears hit a two-run home run in the eighth and a three-run shot with two outs in the ninth to close out the scoring.

Seven different Salukis recorded at least one hit in the win, led by Hagedorn and Boucher's three-hit games.