SUU Opens Summit League Play With a Win at Western Illinois
MACOMB, Ill. – 4/6/12, Southern Utah opened its Summit League season with a 9–5 win at Western Illinois on Friday. The Thunderbirds trailed throughout most of the game before scoring all nine of their runs during the final two innings to claim the come-from-behind victory. SUU took its first lead in the top of the ninth on a three-run homerun from David Headley and then added three more runs before holding off the Leathernecks for the 9-5 win.
Western Illinois jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the contest after plating a run in both the second and third innings. Leftfielder Tom Lilja recorded the game’s first score after coming around from second on an error in left field and Steve Kedrowski added an RBI single in the bottom of the third to put the Leathernecks up by two.
The score remained 2-0 throughout most the game as the Thunderbird offense was unable to get on the board over the first seven innings while SUU starter Chase Rezac kept WIU in check. The junior right-hander struck out six batters while allowing just two earned runs.
Then in the bottom of the seventh a series of mistakes starting with a wild pitch followed by two throwing errors would allow Western Illinois to extend its advantage to 3-0 as Lilja came all the way from first to score.
The Thunderbirds were finally able to get on the board in the top of the eighth, battling back with three runs in the inning to knot the score at three runs apiece. Dave Ricker started the rally by reaching second on an error in left field and then advancing to third on a base hit by David Headley. With runners on the corners Marcus Romero put a ball in play in the left side of the infield where it was misplayed by the shortstop allowing Ricker to score and Headley to reach second base. Bo Cuthbertson and Justin Neuhart then hit back-to-back RBI singles for SUU to pull the game to a 3-3 tie.
The deadlock didn’t last long however as the home team plated two more runs in the bottom half of the frame to retake the lead at 5-3. An RBI single from Reyes followed by an RBI sac-fly off the bat of Matt Igara would help the Leathernecks build the two-run advantage.
Freshman Kevin Kline led off the ninth inning with an infield single to give SUU a base runner before Ricker was hit by a pitch to put two on with one out. Headley then drove a pitch over the left field wall for his first homerun as a Thunderbird to give Southern Utah its first lead of the game as it went up by a score of 6-5. Cuthbertson then scored on a wild pitch and Neuhart added a two-run RBI single to stretch the margin to 9-5. Sophomore reliever Kolby Rimer then retired each of the three batters he faced in the bottom half of the frame to seal the victory for SUU.
Southern Utah third baseman Justin Neuhart finished the day 3-5 at the plate with three RBI. David Headley also drove in three runs and scored two more while recording hits in both of his plate appearances. Igara, Kedroski and Reyes each had an RBI for Western Illinois.
Andy Harvey picked up the win for the Thunderbirds to even his record at 1-1 while Dan Russell took the loss to go to 2-2.
With the win Southern Utah starts the Summit League season with a record of 1-0 to go along with its overall mark of 7-21. Western Illinois drops to 0-1 in conference play and 9-15-1 on the year.
The two teams will meet again tomorrow in a Saturday doubleheader set to begin at 11:00 a.m. (MT)
