Southern Illinois 1B Matt Schark hit a solo homer in the bottom of the 11th inning to give the Salukis a 7-6 win over Belmont in Game 1 of The Valley’s biggest series of the weekend. SIU (17-13) and Belmont, both 5-1 in the conference (along with Indiana State), featured in the lone Thursday night game featuring Valley teams.
Schark had been 0-for-4 on the night before he stepped to the plate in the 11th inning against Belmont (18-13) reliever Ethan Harden, who was having the exact opposite night of Schark up until that point. Harden had worked 3 1/3 hitless, scoreless innings, striking out 4 with 1 walk. But with 1 out in the 11th, Schark turned around what looked like a hanging breaking ball and deposited it just over the right-field fence, not far from the foul pole. Not only was the ball launched out of the park, but the homer launched SIU into sole possession of 1st place in The Valley for now at 6-1.
Here’s the highlight from the SIU Baseball Twitter feed:
SIU RF Nathan Bandy went 3-for-5, raising his season batting average to .405. Bandy doubled and scored twice. Paul Bonzagni pitched the final 3 1/3 innings for the Salukis to get the win. Of the 10 outs he recorded, 6 were groundouts and 4 were strikeouts, indicating impressive command (he walked 1).
Jack Rando (.319) went 3-for-4 with a double and 2 runs for Belmont, which slipped to 5-2 in The Valley, 3rd at the moment, though with a lot of baseball yet to play this weekend.
Life in the Valley 
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