It was not exactly the debut performance that first-year Stetson head baseball coach Steve Trimper had hoped for, but the Hatters' 7-6 season-opening loss to Southern Illinois on Friday night at Melching Field gave the new skipper plenty of positives to build on.
 
"I want to stay positive and I saw a lot of fight in coming back," Trimper said. "We had some young guys in big situations. Sometimes the succeeded and sometimes they didn't. I think we had a few plays that stood out."
 
The loss was Stetson's fifth consecutive on opening day but if the performance of the young Hatters was any indication, the 100^th season of Stetson baseball will be fun to watch.
 
The Hatters and Salukis both plated a pair of runs in the second inning. SIU took advantage of some early control problems from junior Brooks Wilson, who hit a pair of SIU batters in the frame before leadoff hitter Connor Kopach delivered a two-out, two-run double.
 
Stetson came right back in the bottom of the inning. Senior Colton Lightner drove in the first run of the Trimper era with a double to deep left, scoring freshman Jorge Arenas. Leadoff hitter Jacob Koos made the Salukis pay for an error that extended the inning with a single up the middle to score Lightner and tie the game.
 
"Arenas had a couple of hits early but then, late, when he had a chance to move guys up, he couldn't deliver," Trimper said. "Those young guys in the lineup have to grow up quickly. The older guys just need to play steady. Colton Lightner had a really good game."
 
Wilson kept the game tied through his four innings of work, but with a pitch count pushing 90, he did not come back out for the fifth. He finished his first outing of the year in strong fashion, striking out the final four hitters he faced to finish with eight Ks.
 
Freshman Ryan Stark (0-1) came on in relief for the fifth and fell victim to some misfortune. The Salukis opened the frame by getting a runner on thanks to an error. A walk was followed by a double from Logan Blackfan to give SIU the lead. Stark settled down to get the next two hitters before Will Farmer turned it into a big inning for the Salukis with a two-out, two-run single up the middle. All three runs in the frame were unearned.
 
"I think an error and a couple of plays led to big innings," Trimper said. "The one thing that was the difference in the game was their club made a mistake and held it to one run. When we made a mistake, it turned into two or three runs."
 
After Stark had a quiet sixth, the Salukis hit him up for two more runs in the seventh when Nate Hutchins blasted a two-run home run for a 7-2 lead at the stretch.
 
The Hatters were not about to go down without a fight. After getting SIU starter Chad Whitmer (1-0) out of the game, Stetson was able to score against the Salukis' bull pen.
 
"Their kid was pretty good," Trimper said of Whitmer. "I can see why they milked him early. They wanted to get him deep into the game. Our plan going in was to get to their bullpen early because that would make it easier for us on Saturday and Sunday. We had some good at bats and battled."
 
The Hatters were able to plate runs in each of the last three innings, but a base-running mistake in the seventh cost Stetson what would have been the tying run.
 
Nico Torino led off the inning with a double off reliever Mitch Townsend before Koos drew a walk. Austin Hale reach on a ground ball to third that erased Torino before Kirk Sidwell singled in Koos, moving Hale to third. The Hatters' catcher then fell victim to his opposite number, who picked him off. Mike Spooner followed with a single.
 
"We had veteran guys who got picked off or missed a sign that hurt us," Trimper said. "I knew we were going to make mistakes because we want to play aggressive and put the pedal to the metal. We are going to have to do that if we are going to be able to score four or five runs a game."
 
The Hatters edged closer in the eighth when Austin Bogart led off with a walk, moved to third on a hit-and-run single by Lightner and then scored on a passed ball.
 
The Salukis turned to their closer, Ryan Netemeyer, in the ninth, but Stetson went right to work against him. Hale and Sidwell drew back-to-back walks before Spooner doubled into the right field corner to cut the deficit to 7-5. With the tying runs on base and no one out, Netemeyer came back to strikeout out Arenas, Bogart and Lightner in order, with a wild pitch mixed in, to earn his first save of the year.
 
"A good way to put it is that we shot ourselves in the foot and we don't want to keep doing that," Trimper said. "There were a couple of plays – getting picked off and missing a sign on a hit and run, getting Sidwell thrown out. I am not going to harp on those things because I want them to be aggressive, but that was not about being aggressive, that was a missed sign.
 
"We executed two hit and runs where we made good contact. One went for a double and the other went the other way for a hit. It is unfortunate because the positives outweighed the negatives tonight, but we still lost. We have to build on it and come back tomorrow."
 
Lightner and Spooner led the way for Stetson with three hits each as the Hatters out-hit the Salukis 12-9. Sidwell and Arenas had two hits each. Blackfan, Hutchins and Farmer had two hits each for the Salukis, who struck out 14 times against the trio of Wilson, Stark and Joey Gonzalez.
 
"It would have really been fitting if we could have gotten one more hit because we fought so hard to get there," Trimper said of the ninth inning. "All we had to do was get a ground ball or a sacrifice fly. Even if we had only gotten into extra innings, that would have been a big plus."
 
Trimper said the thing he was most excited about was the Stetson crowd and how they supported the team. The official attendance was announced at 1,363.
 
"The crowd was great," Trimper said. "I thought the energy was great, and you could definitely feel it. I hope that continues and I want to make sure the fans know how much we appreciate it. It is such a difference maker late in the game. The guys fed off it. I think it was a big deal for us and hope it continues."
 
Stetson will send sophomore right-hander Jack Perkins to the mound for the second game of the series on Saturday. The game is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start.
 
"Perkins has looked outstanding in all of our scrimmages," Trimper said. "He has actually been better than Brooks and has been the best of our guys. If he can continue to do what he did in scrimmages and go out there and keep us in the game, then maybe we can build off what we did offensively. We have to try to get back to even to give us a chance to win a series on Sunday."
 
Prior to Saturday's game, the 2016 ASUN Tournament Championship team will be presented with their championship rings in a ceremony on the field.

About Stetson University Athletics: Stetson University's Athletics Program has a vision of developing a culture of champions athletically, academically and within the community. This vision is accomplished through a mission of recruiting and developing student-athletes, coaches and staff, creating a culture of champions, within and outside of competition. The department operates with five core values: Championship Culture, Integrity, Excellence, Pride/Tradition and Leadership. To learn more about the Vision, Mission and Core Values for Stetson Athletics, visit GoHatters.com and click on Mission Statement under the Inside Athletics tab.