Baseball

One Streak Snapped, Another Streak Breaks Record
         (Edwardsville) After getting only four hits in game one, the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville baseball team pounded out 17 hits in game two to split a doubleheader with the University of Southern Indiana.
         SIUE snapped its 13-game winning streak in a 4-1 loss in game one, but won the second game 12-5 to make their record 27-16 overall and 13-3 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
         While the winning streak was snapped, another streak was kept alive. Nick Seibert went one for three in both games, extending his hitting streak to an SIUE record 24 games. The old record of 23 games was set by Mark Briggs in 1996.
         Dave Crouthers started the first game for the Cougars and pitched five innings while giving up four hits and two earned runs. Back-to-back doubles to start the game gave USI a 1-0 early lead.
         The Cougars tied the score in the bottom of the third when Nick Seibert (Worden, Kan.) singled in Josh Cate (Imperial, Mo.). That was the only run the Cougars could muster on four hits off of starting pitcher Kylan Stuck.
         In game two the Cougars sent nine batters to the plate in a five-run second inning. Steve Berra (St. Charles, Mo.) started the rally with a leadoff single. Todd Haug (Rosewood Hts.) then singled and Seribert was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
         After an RBI fielder's choice by Luke Humphrey (Rantoul), Chad Opel's (Edwardsville) single drove in one run and Humphrey scored on a throwing error. Mark Bugger (Edwardsville) had an RBI double followed by Dave Crouther's (Edwardsville) RBI single. Josh DeWitte then singled but Crouthers was thrown out at third to end the inning.
         The Cougars scored two runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings and added one more in the seventh inning. Bugger and Opel each went three for five and had a combined five RBI and three runs scored.
         Six pitchers took the mound for SIUE, with Matt Wilkinson (Melbourne, Australia) getting the win. He pitched one and two-thirds shutout innings with no hits and four strike outs. Wilkinson is now 6-0 on the season.
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