Cougars Capture Fourth Straight Baseball Win, by 13-3 Margin Over Western Illinois

EDWARDSVILLE – SIUE scored eight times in the fourth inning Tuesday on its way to a 13-3 win over Western Illinois in seven innings.

The Cougars have won four straight and improved to 13-21 overall. Western Illinois dropped to 14-20.

The 13 runs scored are a season high for the Cougars who hit three home runs in the contest.

"We had the big third and fourth innings with some really good at-bats which broke it open," SIUE Head Coach Sean Lyons said. "It was good to see the offense continuing to swing hot bats and get a good win tonight."

With the game tied 1-1, the Cougars regained the lead in the third inning. Eric Giltz drove an RBI-triple to the gap in left center to score Brendan Ryan, and then scored himself on a wild pitch. Dustin Woodcock walked and Brock Weimer crushed a 1-0 pitch from Western Illinois reliever Alex Dorethy over the left field fence to make it 5-1.

The home runs in the 31st in Weimer's career, moving him into second place all alone. He is two away from tying the all-time mark of 33 career home runs held by Devin Caldwell.

Western Illiniois starter Chandler Fochs took the loss and fell to 1-2. He allowed three runs in two innings of work.

In the fourth, the Cougars used two hits and hit batter to load the bases. Woodcock forced in the first run with a groundout. Weimer was intentionally walked and then Peyton Cordova-Smith walked to force in another run. Raul Elguezabal followed with a double to wall in left center to clear the bases and give SIUE a 10-1 lead.

"Weimer had the big home run in the third, but Raul had a huge at-bat in the fourth," Lyons said. "He had had two ugly at-bats in his first two and then came up with the bases-clearing double. That was the one that broke the game open. It was a big at-bat for him."

Justin Perkins followed Elguezabal with a two-run home run, his third of the year to chase reliever Alex Dorethy. Dorethy surrendered nine runs in 1 2/3 innings.

Jackson Layton greeted new pitcher Austin Emmanuel with a pinch hit solo home run to left for the 13th run of the night.

Ryan Byrd (2-1) started and worked the first four innings allowing a run on three hits. He walked four, but struck out five.

"It starts on the mound," Lyons said. "Byrd gave us a solid start. He had a tough second inning, but the good thing is he rebounded and really cleaned it up after that."

Cameron Prayer worked two innings in his first outing since March 17. He allowed two runs on two hits and struck out three. Tyler Hutchinson worked the seventh inning, allowing a hit but facing on three hitters thanks to a game-ending double play.

"It was good to get Cameron Prayer and Hutchinson back out on the mound after some time off for the two of them," Lyons added.

SIUE takes a weekend off from Ohio Valley Conference play when it plays host to Valparaiso Friday and Saturday for a three-game series.

"We have some confidence heading into the weekend with Valpo coming to town," Lyons said.

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