DeCooman tosses five innings to help Little Rock defeat Salukis

North Shore Twins and Junior National Team alum Jack DeCooman (North Vancouver, B.C.) started and tossed the first five innings for Little Rock in their 11-5 win over the Southern Illinois Salukis on Sunday. Photo: Little Rock Athletics

March 28, 2021

By John T. Lock

Southern Illinois University Athletics

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Little Rock scored two runs in the eighth inning and four more in the ninth to break a 5-5 tie and send the Trojans to an 11-5 win over the No. 22 ranked SIU baseball team on Sunday afternoon at Itchy Jones Stadium.

Little Rock won the series, 2-1.

"It was a closer game than the final score showed. We just need to find a way to finish a game against a good opponent," SIU head coach Lance Rhodes said. "As we grow as a team and get into pressure moments, we need to learn how to handle those types of things. This weekend was the first time all year that we've been challenged by a team that is as good as we are. They performed better in pressure moments. They made better pitches. They didn't chase out of the strike zone as much as we did, and they made more plays defensively. When you're playing another really good team, you have to step up in those big moments and take advantage of opportunities, and we just didn't do that. We got beat in every aspect of the game this weekend and probably got lucky to get a win on Friday night to take a win. They outplayed us pretty much all weekend long."

In an outstanding back-and-forth three-game series, the finale featured four lead changes. SIU (19-3) took a 1-0 lead on an RBI double by Phil Archer in the second inning. Little Rock (11-8) took the lead right back with a two-run homer in the third. SIU tied the game in the bottom of the third when Ian Walters tripled and Brad Hudson knocked him in with a groundout.

The Trojans pushed their lead out to 4-2 with single runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Little Rock tried to steal another run in the fifth, but SIU reliever Tanner Lewis threw out Tyler Williams trying to steal home on a trick play, with the runner leading off of first base intentionally falling down while Williams tried to score.

"In all areas, we had moments, but it wasn't consistent on the weekend," Rhodes said. "When you play someone who is good, you have to be consistently good. We weren't good enough, really, anywhere."

J.T. Weber brought SIU within 4-3 with a solo homer in the bottom of the fifth, and Brad Hudson tied the game with a solo homer in the top of the sixth. The Salukis nearly broke the game open in the sixth, loading the bases with no outs, but Little Rock turned a double play that only allowed the Salukis to score one run.

"The big key, and it happened to us Saturday and again today, was that we were right there with a chance, and we chase a bad ball and hit into a double play," Rhodes said. "It pretty much killed the rally yesterday and hit into another double play today. It's tough when you get things going, especially right there, where they were willing to trade two outs for a run. Really, if we can do anything but hit a ball on the ground right there, we have a chance to extend our lead and feel better about things."

North Shore Twins and Junior National Team alum Jack DeCooman (North Vancouver, B.C.) started and tossed the first five innings for Little Rock, allowing five runs on five hits.

In the three-game series, Little Rock responded to an SIU score with a score of its own in the next half-inning seven times. The seventh of those was in the top of the seventh inning today. After SIU had taken a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the sixth, Little Rock hit a leadoff triple in the top of the seventh and scored the run on an RBI groundout.

"Sometimes, when you win as much as we've won, you get kind of complacent," Rhodes said. "You feel like maybe you've arrived. This was a little bit of a gut-check. We'll respond. We'll get back at it on Tuesday with a good practice, and we have another good team coming in on the weekend. We just need to get back on the practice field and tackle some of the issues that we have."

The score was tied, 5-5, through seven complete innings, and the game was turned over to each team's bullpen ace. On Friday, SIU's Trey McDaniel earned the win while the Salukis got to Little Rock's Aaron Barkley. Today, the script was flipped. Little Rock scored twice in the eighth to take the lead and then blew the game open with a four-run ninth to set the final score at 11-5.

"I'm happy that we're disappointed in our third loss of the season, but I'm disappointed that we didn't play as well as I would have hoped under the pressure of a really tough opponent. We have a lot of work to do in terms of being able to handle big moments and the pressures of a good opponent."

UP NEXT: SIU resumes Missouri Valley Conference play next weekend with a four-game series against Illinois State, the preseason No. 2 team in the MVC. Friday night's game is set to begin at 6 p.m.

NOTES: SIU lost a series for the first time in the Lance Rhodes era (had been 5-0 in 3-game series and 2-0 in 4-game series) ... SIU lost back-to-back home games for the first time since late in the 2019 season and fell to 17-3 at home in the Rhodes era ... SIU is 48-16 in its last 64 home games, dating back to the 2018 season ... Little Rock evened the all-time series 2-2. The only prior meeting between the schools was an SIU 2-0 win in 2002 ... SIU lost back-to-back games for just the second time in the Rhodes era and first time since Feb. 18, 2020 (L, 4-3 at Belmont) and Feb. 21, 2020 (L, 6-5 vs. #18 Arizona) last season … Okotoks Dawgs alum Tristan Peters (Winkler, Man.) singled in four at bats for SIU.