Kyle Bloom was as impressive as ever, nearly pitching a complete game in the Redbirds 6-3 win over Southern Illinois University in Missouri Valley conference action Friday night at Redbird Field.
Bloom (4-5) was spectacular in the start, as he continues to dominate the second half of the season. The junior left-hander went 8 2/3 innings, allowing no earned runs and nine hits, while striking out 10. Kyle Zaleski came on to record the final out and pick up his fifth save of the season.
Taking the loss for SIU was junior lefty Brian Haberer (4-2). Haberer pitched well, despite taking a complete game loss. He went eight innings, allowing nine hits, three earned runs and five strikeouts.
The games start was delayed 55 minutes due to rain.
Southern Illinois ( 15-24-1, 9-11-1) got on the board first, when they got two unearned runs off of Bloom. The inning started off on the wrong note for Illinois State, as Nick Baughman reached on an error by Illinois State. Baughman popped up on the infield grass, but three Redbirds watched the ball fall in-between them. P.J. Finigan and Nate Emrick each had RBI in the inning for the Salukis.
Illinois State (15-23, 6-11) was able to get to Haberer in the sixth, Luke Baughman knocked in Nick Crist to cut the SIU lead to 2-1. However, junior Jeremy Pickrel grounded into a double-play with one out and the bases loaded to end the inning and kill the Redbird Rally.
ISU would continue to rally in the bottom of the seventh. Matt Bolt reached on an error to start the inning and Greg Blaesing followed with a single off Haberer. With runners on first and second, Chris Shepherd executed a perfect sacrifice bunt to advance the runners and Crist would knock in Bolt with a RBI single to tie the game at two. Joe Peterson and Nate Whitney would then follow with consecutive RBI singles to give ISU a 4-2 lead. The Birds werent done yet though, as a two-out RBI double by Jay Molina brought in another run to make it 5-2 Birds after seven.
The two teams will play two tomorrow, with the first game beginning at 1:00 p.m. at Redbird Field. Todd Stein will start game one for ISU while Josh Kauten will toe the rubber in game two. Game one will be broadcast on AM 1230 WJBC, as well as on www.wjbc.com. Game two will switch over to the internet only and be available on www.wjbc2.com.
