May 22, 2021

By John T. Lock

Southern Illinois Athletics

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Philip Archer hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning on his Senior Day to give SIU a 5-3 win over Dallas Baptist on Saturday in the final game of the regular season.

SIU finished the regular season with 38 wins, one of only 10 teams in the nation to win 38+ games in the regular season.

"When you think about Senior Day and having a senior step up in the biggest moment of the game, you couldn't have scripted it better than that," SIU head coach Lance Rhodes said. "I'm happy for our team. I'm happy for Phil. He'll probably never forget that moment for the rest of his life. I'm proud of our team. It was a really fun game. It was back-and-forth game between two really good teams. You didn't have the pressure because all you had was everything to gain. It was fun to sit back and watch out kids perform well in pressure moments."

SIU (38-18, 15-13 MVC) won each of the final two games of the series to split the four-game set against DBU (33-15, 18-6 MVC), which won the MVC regular season title. Each of SIU's two wins were come-from-behind wins, giving SIU 15 comeback wins this season. Today, DBU struck first with a pair of runs in the fifth inning to take a 2-0 lead.

Southern's comeback started in the sixth inning. Ian Walters and J.T. Weber started the inning with back-to-back singles, and Tristan Peters (Winkler, Man.) drove in a run with an RBI single. Nick Neville followed with a towering shot to dead center, but it died on the track from a game-tying sacrifice fly.

The Patriots, a likely NCAA Tournament team, re-took the lead in the eighth inning with a two-out single by Jace Grady.

SIU, one of the most prolific home run hitting teams in the nation this year, had been held without a homer all weekend until the eighth inning of the final game of the series. Peters hit a solo shot to tie the game. Nick Neville followed by drawing a walk, and Philip Archer hit a rocket line drive the opposite way over the left-center wall for a two-run homer. Trey McDaniel, who got the final out of the top of the eighth, struck out the side around a pair of walks in the ninth to secure the win.

SIU honored 10 seniors before the game: Philip Archer, Adam Bunnell, Dylan Givens, Ian Walters, Brad Harrison, Nick Neville, Austin Ulick, Noah Farmer, Tony Rask, and Brad Hudson. The seniors stepped up today. Farmer started the game for SIU and faced the minimum through his first four innings. Rask and Walters picked up base hits. Neville drove in a run on the sac fly and scored the go-ahead run on Archer's homer.

UP NEXT: SIU will face Bradley at 7 p.m. on Wednesday in the 2021 MVC Tournament. SIU is hosting the tournament at Itchy Jones Stadium. All-session tickets are on sale now for The Hill.

NOTES: SIU improved to 8-3 against teams currently in the top-55 of the RPI ... SIU is 7-1 in true road games against team in the top-55 of the RPI and outscored those opponents 61-30 ... SIU's 38 wins are the most for the program since 2005, and tied with that 2005 team for the most wins for the program since the 1990 team went 49-14 ... SIU was one of only 10 programs in the nation to reach 38 wins in the regular season, joining Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi State, Texas, Vanderbilt, Charlotte, East Carolina, Old Dominion, and Ole Miss ... SIU's two homers gave it 74 for the season, which is second-most in program history (SIU hit 75 homers in 1997) ... SIU improved to 24-8 at Itchy Jones Stadium this season, 29-8 at home under head coach Lance Rhodes, and 60-21 in its last 81 home games dating back to 2018 ... SIU won 10 of its final 14 MVC games after starting league play 5-9 ... SIU turned 44 double plays this year, which leads the MVC. SIU has led the MVC in double plays seven of the last nine years ... J.T. Weber closed the regular season with a hit in 21 of his final 24 games ... SIU beat Dallas Baptist twice in one season for the first time ever.