March 5, 2021

Official Southern Illinois Athletics News Release

CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illlinois Salukis team ran its winning streak to 14 games with a 14-7 win over UT Martin on Friday afternoon at Itchy Jones Stadium.

The Salukis improved to 9-0 on the season and have won 14-straight games dating back to last year, the second-longest active winning streak in the nation.

“The bats are still rolling, and that’s what carried us,” SIU head coach Lance Rhodes said. “(SIU starting pitcher) Mike (Hansell) was struggling with his control, but he was able to battle and get through five innings and allowed us to shorten up our bullpen. It helps when you have an offence behind you that’s swinging the bats hot. We relied on them. Credit to UT Martin. They swung the bats extremely well today.”

UT Martin came into the weekend red-hot, winners of three-straight games, including handing No. 22 Alabama its lone loss. And the Skyhawks were good again today. They took a 2-0 lead with single runs in the first and second innings. SIU immediately answered with a four-run bottom of the second; but every time SIU would put some separation in the score, UT Martin would answer right back.

SIU led 5-2 after three, but UTM scored two in the fourth. SIU led 9-4 after six, but UTM scored three in the seventh. The Skyhawks were within striking distance until the bottom of the eighth inning, when Nick Neville hit a towering three-run homer that give SIU a 12-7 lead. Vinni Massaglia, who hit a three-run homer earlier in the game, followed Neville’s bomb with an RBI double, and the Salukis added one more unearned run after a passed ball to set the final score at 14-7.

SIU has officially gone one year between losses. The Salukis lost on March 4, 2020, to Austin Peay, and then rattled off five-straight wins before the season was cut short due to COVID-19. Now, the Salukis have piled up nine-straight wins to start the 2021 season.

CF Tristan Peters (Winkler, Man.) had three hits as he singled in the three-run fifth, singled to right knocking in a run and stole second in the sixth, then singled and scored in the eighth.

Peters is hitting .421 with a double, a homer, seven RBIs and a 1.026 OPS in nine games.