March 20, 2011
Box Score
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Saint Louis parlayed a balanced offensive attack and strong starting pitching from freshman Brett Vanover into a 7-1 victory against Northern Illinois Sunday at Southern Illinois' Abe Martin Field. It was the 100th SLU win for Billiken head coach Darin Hendrickson.
Everyone in the starting lineup either registered a hit or scored a run for the Billikens, who improve to 13-6 with the victory. Vanover (2-0) allowed just one run and scattered six hits in seven innings. He struck out two and walked one. C.J. Rose and Jim Foster supported Vanover's outing by tossing a scoreless inning of relief apiece.
Nick Becker led the Bills with a 3-for-4 performance at the dish, which raised his batting average to a team-leading .338 mark. Jordan Hammerman drove in a pair of runs for the Bills, who out-hit Northern Illinois (5-11) by a 10-7 margin.
Hendrickson, in his fourth season with the Billikens, improves his SLU record to 100-89. He joins Bob Hughes (361 wins from 1989-2007) and Roy Lee (1961-68) as the only other SLU coaches with 100 or more wins.
The Bills scored four times in the first and never looked back. NIU starter Jeremy Gonzales walked the bases loaded with one out, and Jon Myers made him pay with an RBI single to shortstop. Hammerman then drove a base hit through the right side to drive in a pair and make it 3-0 Billikens. Travis Parker plated another run when he lifted a sacrifice fly to left, giving SLU a 4-0 advantage after one.
That remained the score until the top of the sixth, when the Huskies' Jamison Wells scored on an Alex Jones single to make it 4-1 NIU.
The Billikens answered with a three-spot in the bottom-half of the frame. Marco DiRoma, Danny Brennan and Cody Cotter all singled to load the bases. DiRoma would later score on a wild pitch, and Mike Levine plated Brennan with a sacrifice fly to give SLU a 6-1 advantage. Steve Fernandez singled home Cotter with a base knock left for the 7-1 final.
Saint Louis travels to Cape Girardeau, Mo., Tuesday for a 5 p.m. matchup against Southeast Missouri State at Capaha Field.
