CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Indiana State baseball outhit Southern Illinois 15-8 in the series finale Sunday afternoon at Itchy Jones Stadium as the Sycamores cruised to an 11-3 victory to clinch their first Missouri Valley Conference series of the year. The win also extended a streak from 2008 in which SIU had not won a home series against the Sycamores.
 
Six Sycamores (24-20, 6-9 MVC) went for multiple hits in the game led by Clay Dungan who finished 4-for-5 with two runs scores. It marked the first four-hit game of the year and the 13th multi-hit game for the junior. Jake Means, Romero Harris and Luke Fegen each tallied home runs for the Trees.
 
Weston Rivers continued his dominance on the mound for the Sycamores, going seven and a third innings, allowing just one run on six base hits while recording a pair of strikeouts. The lefty retired 10-straight Salukis until Alex Lyon's home run in the fourth. The win moved Rivers to 3-0 on the year.
 
After the first two batters in the second inning were retired on just two pitches, junior Jake Means stepped to the plate for the Sycamores and sent his eighth home run of the season over the fence in left field to give ISU early advantage.
 
A welcoming sight to the Sycamore lineup has been designated hitter Romero Harris, who missed over a month due to injury. Harris stepped to the plate in the top of the second and sent a no-doubt home run to left field to push the Indiana State lead to 3-0, following a single from Dane Gielser.
 
Back-to-back walks in the fourth to Jarrod Watkins and Jake Means would come back to haunt the Salukis as Luke Fegen continued the offensive outburst by the Sycamores with his second home run of the season on a line shot to left field.
 
The Salukis (25-23, 8-7 MVC) would get on the board in the bottom of the fourth with a two-out solo home run from Alex Lyon -- ending a streak of 10-straight SIU batters retired by Weston River and the Sycamores.
 
Indiana State would get the run back in the fifth inning after Romero Harris singled and moved to third, first on a passed ball and then a groundout. Harris came home to score on a wild pitch.
 
A passed ball in the seventh would tack on another run for the Sycamores as Clay Dungan scampered home. After Giesler moved first to third on the passed ball, Roberto Enriquez brought him home on a single up the middle to make it 9-1 in favor of Indiana State.
 
A leadoff double from Dungan and a triple from Dane Gielser would allow the Sycamores to tack on two more runs in the ninth. Dungan came home on the Giesler triple before Harris drove in the 11th run of the game on an RBI groundout.
 
It wasn't until the ninth that a Sycamore pitcher allowed a walk. The walk would come back to bite the Trees as SIU tacked on two runs in the ninth after loading the bases against Donnie Ames. A two-RBI single from Kenton Crawford made it 11-3 in favor of Indiana State and that would be how the game ended.
 
Southern Illinois starting pitcher Brad Harrison's day would come to a close in the fifth inning after the lefty allowed six runs on eight hits, including a trio of home runs. Harrison fell to 5-4 on the year with the loss.
 
The Sycamores return home next weekend when Evansville makes the trip to Terre Haute for a three-game Missouri Valley Conference series.
 
For the latest information on the Sycamore Baseball team, be sure to visit GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.