UT MARTIN BASEBALL FALLS IN A PAIR OF TIGHT DECISIONS TO BEGIN ROAD SET AT SIUE

Friday, April 9

Edwardsville, Ill.

1 p.m.

UT Martin

10-15, 3-4

SIUE

14-12, 7-6

UT Martin

SIUE

Photo by: Mariann Parker

UT MARTIN BASEBALL FALLS IN A PAIR OF TIGHT DECISIONS TO BEGIN ROAD SET AT SIUE

4/9/2021 10:10:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 PDF Boxscore (Game 1)PDF Boxscore (Game 2)

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – Despite six hits on the day out of University of Tennessee at Martin first baseman Ethan Whitley, the Skyhawks came up short in a pair of close games as SIUE won the doubleheader by scores of 8-7 (in 10 innings) and 9-6.

Whitley went 6-for-9 at the plate today, including a 4-for-4 effort in the nightcap to set a new career-high for hits in a single game. Wil LaFollette hit .400 with four hits – including his sixth homer of the season – while Blake Daniels (.333, one home run, team-highs of four RBI's and three runs scored) and Sean Dixson (.300, two doubles) also paced UT Martin offensively.

On the mound, Ryan Insco and Seth Petry each delivered multi-inning scoreless relief appearances. Insco fanned a career-high five batters while allowing just one hit over three shutout innings in Game 1 while Petry accounted for two frames of scoreless baseball in Game 2. Skyhawk starting pitchers Winston Cannon and Sam Folks combined for 13 strikeouts over nine innings today as freshman reliever Tucker Reed (0-1) and Folks (2-3) were credited with losses in Game 1 and Game 2, respectively.

Tomorrow's series finale has been pushed up to 12 p.m. as both teams try to avoid Mother Nature's sweeping rain that is forecasted throughout the Midwest.

Game 1
UT Martin went into extra-innings for the third time in the last seven games, ultimately falling in walk-off fashion on a solo home run with one away in the 10^th.

Only seven pitches into the game, four different Skyhawks had batted and two runs were already on the scoreboard. Dixson hit a leadoff single and moved up to third base on a Daniels double. Casey Harford then had an RBI groundout and was followed by an RBI single off the bat of Christian Hall to give UT Martin the upper hand early.

SIUE scored four runs – all unearned – in the bottom of the first but were kept out of the run column in the second thanks to a perfectly executed relay throw from Dixson to Harford to catcher Blake Davis to catch a runner trying to score with one out in the inning.

The Skyhawks tied the game in the third thanks to a clutch two-out, two-run bomb from LaFollette, who pulled a 2-2 offering past the wall in right field for his ninth round-tripper in just 42 career games.

After the Cougars pushed across three runs in the bottom of the third, UT Martin's arms heated up and kept SIUE scoreless until the eventual game-winning run in the 10^th. That stretch began with a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth where Cannon dialed up a pair of strikeouts.

Daniels tripled to centerfield with one away in the top of the fifth, soon coming in to score on a Harford RBI single to cut the Skyhawk deficit to 7-5.

Cannon once again quieted the Cougars in the fifth, his final inning of work. His offense got him off the hook in the top of the sixth after scratching out two runs on three hits to even the score at 7-all. Whitley and Davis had back-to-back singles to ignite the rally. Jack Culumovic plated Whitley on a sacrifice fly while Davis glided home on a Dixson double.

Insco came in from the bullpen in the sixth and immediately proceeded to retire six consecutive batters. He did not allow a ball out of the infield in the sixth and worked his way through a perfect seventh. However, his most impressive inning was the bottom of the eighth. After SIUE led things off with a ground-rule double, Insco fooled the next three Cougar batters for strikeouts, stranding the runner in scoring position and keeping the score knotted at 7-7.

Dixson led off the top of the ninth with a ground-rule double but UT Martin could not manufacture a run. Reed insured the game would go into extra innings after a scoreless ninth where he pitched around a one-out double.

The Skyhawks had another good scoring opportunity in the 10^th as LaFollette singled and advanced on an error with one away. Unfortunately, SIUE was able to wiggle out of the jam and handed UT Martin a crushing defeat just two batters in to the bottom half of the frame.

Game 2
Whitley (4-for-4) and Daniels (career-best four RBI's) guided the Skyhawks offensively but an early hole proved to be too much for UT Martin.

Six of Folks' first seven outs came via strikeout, including a pair of called punchouts in the bottom of the first. The reigning OVC Pitcher of the Week then struck out the side in the second inning but the Cougars managed four runs. SIUE added two runs in the third before Folks tossed up a zero in the bottom of the fourth.

Petry joined the game in the fifth and worked two clean innings. He sat down the final five Cougars he faced, including retiring the side in order during the sixth.

Meanwhile, the Skyhawk offense came alive in the top of the sixth. Harford was hit by a pitch with one out and came around to score on a Hall single and an error. Following a Will Smith single to put baserunners on the corners, Whitley went opposite field for an RBI single to make the score 6-2.

Jefferey O'Doherty made his eighth appearance of the 2021 campaign, coming in pumping strikes. The 6-4, 245-pound senior righty fanned a pair of batters and recorded another out on a single pitch in a shutout seventh inning. SIUE then scored three runs (one unearned) in the eighth to go on top by a 9-2 margin.

UT Martin kept fighting, generating four runs in the top of the ninth. Whitley's fourth hit of the contest led off the inning as he stroked a double to left field. Davis and Noah Thigpen followed with walks to load the bases with one out for Daniels. The left-handed swinging third baseman from Marked Tree, Ark. then launched a grand slam to left center, trimming the Skyhawk deficit to 9-6 after his team-high third home run in conference play. LaFollette did his best to keep the rally going with a two-out single but the Cougars did not allow a baserunner past that point.