Resilient Wildcats outlast Southern Illinois in 10 innings

CARBONDALE, Illinois – Emilien Pitre delivered a clutch at-bat that resulted in the game-winning hit with two outs in the 10th inning as Kentucky scored a hard-fought 5-4 extra inning road victory at Southern Illinois in Friday night’s series opener.

Kentucky (12-2) claimed its eighth consecutive victory.

The Wildcats jumped out to a 4-0 lead but left 15 runners on base to allow the veteran Salukis to scratch back into the contest, eventually tying the game in the ninth inning. Seth Chavez came in on the mound, extricated the Cats from that inning then locked the game up with a 3-2 fastball to freeze SIU’s leadoff hitter and strand the tying run at third in the 10th.

UK has already won three true road games this season, this time over a SIU team that had won 84 games the past two seasons.