Box Score
The Dallas Baptist Patriots Baseball Team dropped the series-opener against the Southern Illinois Salukis, 7-4, on Thursday evening in Carbondale. The loss drops the Patriots to 13-9 overall.

After coming on in the eighth, Senior Chris Haney picked up the loss for the Patriots, pitching one inning and giving up two runs on two hits.

After a pair of singles and a walk loaded the bases for the Salukis in the bottom of the first, Nick Johnson gave Southern Illinois a 1-0 lead with a sacrifice fly to left center.

Another sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth scored the second run of the day for the Salukis, giving them their 2-0 lead.

Senior Jason Krizan evened the game for the Patriots at two runs apiece in the fifth, when he sent a 1-0 pitch over the right field wall. Krizan's second homerun of the year scored Senior Tyler Robbins who had reached on a single earlier in the inning, and made it a 2-2 game.

The Salukis responded with a one-run fifth to retake a 3-2 lead.

After two scoreless innings, the final two runs for DBU came in the eighth. A leadoff triple by Junior Joel Hutter resulted in the first run of the inning when Sophomore Duncan McAlpine delivered a sacrifice fly with his next at bat.

Junior Kenny Hatcher then reached second on a Southern Illinois error, and advanced to third on a wild pitch. With the game tied and a runner on third, Junior Landon Anderson laid down a perfect RBI bunt to score Hatcher, giving the Patriots a 4-3 advantage.

The lead was short-lived, however, as Southern Illinois pushed across four runs in the bottom half of the eighth for the 7-4 win.

Game two of the series is scheduled for Friday afternoon at 1:00 p.m.