MVC Release

ST. LOUIS – Southern Illinois sophomore pitcher Dylan Givens was named Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Week, the league announced Monday. Givens threw five shutout innings of one-hit baseball in Saturday’s win over Bradley. 

The game was lightning-shortened after five innings, giving Givens a complete-game shutout with two strikeouts. Only a one-out fifth-inning double prevented Givens from throwing a no-hitter. He limited the Braves to an .059 batting average.

Givens, a first-year transfer from John A. Logan College, earned the honor for the first time in his career. SIU earned MVC Pitcher of the Week four times this year, with Brad Harrison earning the honor the other three times. It is the sixth overall MVC weekly honor for SIU this year, with Alex Lyon earning Player of the Week honors twice.

Givens is the fourth pitcher on SIU’s staff to earn the honor in his career, joining Harrison, Michael Baird and Ryan Netemeyer. The shutout was Southern’s seventh of the season, which ranks fourth nationally and is the most for an SIU staff since 1979. 

Southern Illinois opens the MVC Tournament on Wednesday morning vs. Indiana State. The Salukis and Sycamores are the tournament’s opening game, with first pitch coming at 9 a.m. All games in the MVC Tournament will be broadcast on ESPN+.

CARBONDALE, Ill. – For the second-straight day, Southern Illinois and Bradley had to suspended a baseball game due to lightning. Thursday night’s game, which was suspended in the third inning, was finished on Friday with the Braves winning, 5-3. The teams then started the second game of the series, which was suspended in the bottom of the fifth inning with the score tied, 1-1. 

The teams will resume the second game of the series at noon on Saturday, which will be followed by a Senior Day ceremony honoring SIU’s eight seniors. After the ceremony, the teams will play the final game of the series. 

The first game of the series started on Thursday night with three innings before the suspension. In the opening three innings, the Braves held a 3-2 lead. When the game resumed today, both pitching staffs got excellent pitching performances. For SIU, Brad Harrison allowed just one earned run in 5.1 innings while striking out five, his best strikeout total in his last six starts. The only earned run he gave up was four walks during an inning when the rain was heavy.

Bradley reliever Boby Johnson earned the win for Bradley with 6.1 outstanding innings. He struck out nine while allowing just one unearned run. With the win, Bradley secured the No. 3 seed in the upcoming MVC Tournament.

In the second game of the series, SIU started the scoring with Jared Kengott’s RBI double in the second inning. Noah Farmer made his first collegiate start and was outstanding, throwing a career-best four scoreless innings. He allowed four hits and a walk but worked around the traffic to strand four Bradley runners. 

After Farmer left after four innings, Bradley tied the game in the top of the fifth. A leadoff walk was sacrificed to second, and a one-out opposite-side RBI single tied the game. The Salukis started a rally in the bottom of the fifth. Jared Kengott singled and Brad Hudson drew a walk. Then, with a 1-1 count on leadoff man Nikola Vasic, a nearby lightning strike forced the game suspension. 

SIU will be either the 5-seed or 6-seed in next week’s MVC Tournament. Southern can clinch the No. 5 seed in the MVC Tournament with a win in either game on Saturday or an Illinois State loss at Evansville.

ST. LOUIS — Celebrating 25 years of sponsoring women’s athletics in the Missouri Valley Conference, and 45 years of Title IX, Southern Illinois track alumnae DeAnna Price, Bianca Stuart, Brittany Riley, Jeneva (McCall) Stevens and Amarchi Ukabam were honored on the MVC Women’s Field 25-Year Anniversary Team, the league announced Tuesday.

The team was determined by a 25-person committee (two representatives from each MVC member institution and a panel of five voters from the Conference office). The voting panel determined a “Top-10” from a list of 25 finalists.

Price was a two-time national champion in the hammer throw and a four-time All-American while at Southern. The Moscow Mills, Mo. native had one of the most dominate senior seasons in collegiate hammer throw history, as she won her second NCAA hammer throw title with a meet record heave of 71.53m (234′-8″), and later captured bronze at the U.S. Olympic Trials to punch her ticket to the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Her throw of 73.09m (239′-09″) at the Trials was the furthest all-conditions throw in collegiate history. The four-time MVC Champion went on to finish eighth at the 2016 Olympics, which marked the seventh time in SIU track and field history that a Saluki alum has finished top-8 at the Olympics and she became just the third thrower in NCAA history to win a NCAA hammer throw title and compete at the Olympics in the same year.

Stuart, a 2009 graduate, is a two-time Olympic long jump qualifier from the Bahamas. While at Southern, Stuart earned two All-America honors and was a seven-time MVC Champion in the jumps, including the only four-year sweep of the indoor long jump in conference history. At the 2009 MVC Indoor Championships, Stuart broke the meet record with her jump of 21′-6.25″, a record that still stands. She finished 16th in the long jump at the 2016 Omypics and 18th in the event at the 2012 games.

Riley was a two-time NCAA Champion in the weight throw and a six-time All-American while donning the Maroon and White. At the 2007 NCAA Indoor National Championships, Riley set a world-record in the weight throw with her toss of 83′-10.25″ en route to being named the NCAA’s Indoor National Athlete of the Year. As a freshman, Riley broke the school record in the hammer throw to win at the USA Track and Field Junior Championships and advanced to the 2005 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships, where she took home a silver medal. A four-time MVC Most Outstanding Field Athlete award recipient, Riley’s name is all over the collegiate record book as she still holds the American Collegiate weight throw record and has eight of the top-10 marks in the event in NCAA history.

Stevens is one of the most decorated student-athletes in Saluki track and field history. The Dolton, Ill. native won three national titles while at Southern, the most by an individual in the program’s storied history, and was a three-time NCAA Runner-up. In 2012, the 13-time All-American won NCAA titles in both the weight throw and the hammer throw while also taking second in the indoor shot put. In doing so, Stevens was named the USTFCCCA Midwest Women’s Field Athlete of the Year marking the first, and only time, that a student-athlete from the Valley has earned the honor. A 15-time MVC Champion, Stevens was also a Bowerman Award semifinalist in 2012. Professionally, Stevens became the first American woman to ever medal in the hammer throw in worldwide competition with her win in the event at the 2013 World University Games and most recently finished second in the shot put at the 2018 USATF Indoor Championships.

Ukabam, who transferred to SIU from Ohio State in 2004, won six All-American honors with the Salukis from 2004-06. After arriving at Southern, Ukabam immediately made her presence felt. She won MVC titles in the shot put, weight throw and discus that season and set Valley records in the indoor shot put, weight throw and discus. She went on to win a total of six MVC titles during her collegiate career and helped Southern win the 2005 MVC indoor team title, its first since 1989.

Brittany Smith (Illinois State), Kylie Hutson (Indiana State), Felisha Johnson (Indiana State), Rachel Jansen (Northern Iowa) and Paige Knoodle (Northern Iowa) rounded out the 10-women team.