CARBONDALE, Ill. – Southern Illinois Baseball will take a road trip to North Carolina to play at Queens (N.C.) and Appalachian State beginning Friday in Charlotte, N.C. Originally scheduled to play North Carolina A&T in Hickory, N.C., on Friday, SIU will now play at Queens, with first pitch scheduled for 3 p.m. CT.<\/p>\n
AROUND THE HORN<\/p>\n
RHODES AT THE HELM<\/p>\n
THE SCHEDULE<\/p>\n
THE PROBABLE STARTERS<\/p>\n MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE PRESEASON POLL<\/p>\n Southern Illinois was picked to finish second in the Missouri Valley Conference preseason poll. Murray State was selected as the conference favorite, followed by SIU, UIC, Illinois State, and Indiana State. Six Salukis were named to the MVC Players to Watch list:<\/p>\n Simay led SIU with a .351 batting average last season, while Petrey was a key arm out of the bullpen and earned All-MVC Honorable Mention honors.<\/p>\n The Salukis enter the season with an experienced roster, including only a handful of underclassmen, and relying heavily on leadership with experience in the Saluki Baseball program. ON THE DIAMOND<\/p>\n
ON THE MOUND<\/p>\n
HISTORIC 2025 OFFENSE<\/p>\n
HOT STARTS<\/p>\n
FOLLOW THE SALUKIS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CARBONDALE, Ill. – Southern Illinois Baseball will take a road trip to North Carolina to play at Queens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-139147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\tThe Salukis dropped two of three at Oral Roberts in their\u00a0first series of the season.
\n\tSIU hit a school-record 113 home runs last season, with a large portion of that power returning, led by Michael Mylott<\/a> and Gabe Petrucelli<\/a>. The pitching staff also brings back experience, including weekend starter Meade Johnson<\/a> and reliever Dylan Petrey<\/a>, while several newcomers are expected to play key positions early in the season.
\n\tConsistent with previous seasons under Rhodes, the Salukis will have over 20 new pieces as the season begins.\u00a0The roster consists\u00a0of 13 seniors, 15 juniors, three sophomores and just two freshmen.
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\n\tLance Rhodes<\/a> is in his seventh season as head coach, guiding SIU to back-to-back 40-win seasons for the first time in program history (2021 & 2022). He owns a 197-118 record at SIU.\u00a0He enters the weekend three wins away from the 200-win mark in his SIU career.
<\/p>\n
\n\tFriday at Queens\u00a0\u2014 3 p.m. CT
\n\tSaturday at Queens \u2014 5 p.m. CT
\n\tSunday at Appalachian State \u2014 12 p.m. CT
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\n\tSouthern Illinois returns big offensive production from last season’s lineup, including several of the team’s top run producers and power hitters. Petrucelli and Mylott headline a group that helped set the program’s single-season home run record.
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\n\tSIU brings back key arms to anchor the pitching staff, including Meade Johnson<\/a>, who returns as part of this weekend’s rotation, and Dylan Petrey<\/a>, who is expected to play a major role in late-inning situations. The Salukis have also added several transfers, including Andrew Evans<\/a>, who will start on Friday. The Kansas State transfer features a fastball that tops out in the mid-90s with multiple wipeout pitches and figures to be a key arm early on.
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\n\tSIU ranks 25th nationally and second in the MVC with 500\u00a0runs scored in 2025, and led the league with 8.8 runs per game.
\n\tThe Salukis were 42nd nationally with 603 hits.
\n\tSIU ranked 10th nationally and first in the MVC with 113\u00a0home runs.
\n\tSouthern ranks sixth nationally and led the MVC with a .555\u00a0slugging percentage.
\n\tThe Salukis\u00a0were tied for 30th nationally and tied for second in the MVC with 124 doubles.
\n\tSIU was second in the MVC and ranked 28th\u00a0nationally with 17\u00a0triples.
\n\tThe Salukis were\u00a0tied for 24th nationally and led the MVC with 33 sacrifice flies.
\n\tSIU was\u00a0second in the MVC with 81 stolen bases.
\n\tThe staff posted five shutouts, tied for 21st\u00a0nationally and second in the MVC, and boasted\u00a012 saves, including eight by Sam Frizzi<\/a>.
<\/p>\n
\n\tKye Watson<\/a>\u00a0was the top Saluki hitter in the opening series at Oral Roberts. The freshman from Lititz, Pa., went 5-for-11 at the plate and hit two solo homers\u00a0in his debut series for Southern.\u00a0
\n\tCharlie Miller<\/a> made the most of his first appearance out of the bullpen, pitching three shutout frames in Friday’s win. The sophomore struck out three on the day.
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