March 12, 2005

Final Stats

By Jeff Honza
www.SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Senior right-hander P.J. Finigan posted a career-high 17 strikeouts in an outstanding pitching performance to lead Southern Illinois (9-6) to a 8-0 blanking of Chicago State (0-16) earlier today at Abe Martin Field.

A native of Springfield, Ill., Finigan struck out every CSU hitter at least once. He also surpassed his previous career-high of eight Ks (vs. Northern Illinois on Mar. 5) in the third inning.

Additionally, every putout up until the third hitter of the CSU fifth inning came courtesy of a Finigan strikeout. He also capped off seven innings of shutout baseball by retiring nine straight.

Not to mention, he fell just three Ks shy of breaking SIU's all-time single-game strikeout record currently held by Ed Walter who fanned 19 vs. Saint Louis on April 4, 1963.

"My changeup, slider and fastball were all working today," said Finigan. "I felt like I was making the pitches I needed to when they had guys on base. I was getting into counts, where I had opportunities to get Ks."

With Finigan carving up one Cougar after another, SIU went to work on offense, where a pair of solo home runs helped the Salukis jump out to a 3-0 lead.

Two of the three tallies came in the first inning, as Kevin Koski scored on a balk and Grant Gerrard launched a two-out homer over the right field wall. Then, in the fifth, Hunter Harrigan hit a leadoff homer to left center for his first round-tripper as a Saluki.

Trailing by three, CSU's pitching self-destructed in the sixth, as three walks and a wild pitch led to a four-run rout for the Dawgs.

Gerrard singled, went to second on a Erik Alvarez walk and advanced to third on a single by Dean Cademartori. With one out and the bases loaded, Tyler Lairson walked and Gerrard scored. A two-out walk by Ryan Hypke followed, before Koski knocked in both Cademartori and Lairson on a double to right center.

After mowing down the Cougars for seven frames and needing only three strikeouts to break Walter's single-game mark, Finigan was relieved by Ryan Welch in the eighth.

Although the pitching change seemed puzzling at the time, it made sense in the end.

"We made a decision that P.J. wasn't going to throw more than 115 pitches today, and he finished the seventh with 114," Saluki head coach Dan Callahan explained. "We knew that by the rate he was getting strikeouts, his pitch count was up."

"Needless to say, that's as dominating a pitching performance I've seen," added Callahan.

Despite the fact he came so close to becoming the school's all-time single-game strikeout leader, Finigan understood Callahan's decision. In fact, his remarks were spoken like a true two-way guy.

"It would have been nice to stay in the game, but I have to play shortstop tomorrow," stated Finigan.

Finigan moved to 2-1 on the year, as he also walked one and scattered four hits. In his last two starts, Finigan has struck out 25 and walked four in 13 innings.

Offensively, Koski, Gerrard and Cademartori each had two hits, including one that went for extra bases.

Koski went 2-for-3 with a run scored, a double and two RBI; Gerrard finished at 2-for-4 with two runs scored, a homer and one RBI; and Cademartori went 2-for-3 with a triple and two runs.

Adam Sali fell to 0-5 on the year after taking the loss for the Cougars. He gave up five hits and seven runs, while striking out two and walking four in 5.1 innings.

SIU and CSU wrap up their three-game series tomorrow at 1 p.m.