Baseball

Baseball Has a Splitting Weekend
         After splitting the last three conference doubleheaders, the No. 25 Southern Illinois University Edwardsville baseball team faces its biggest games this weekend when it takes on conference rival, Missouri-St. Louis, in a three-game series.
         “Everything is riding on Saturday and Sunday,” said Coach Gary Collins.
         However, the Cougars have one more non-conference game on it schedule. On Wednesday, SIUE plays Lindenwood, an NAIA school, in a single game beginning at 3 p.m. at Roy Lee Field.
         The Cougars, 30-18 overall and 16-5 in the conference, host the Rivermen for a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at noon. On Sunday, SIUE travel across the river for a single game scheduled for 1 p.m. Missouri-St. Louis, 25-15 overall and 13-8 in the conference, trails the Cougars in the South Division standings by three games.
         Last week, the Cougars 13-game winning streak was snapped when SIUE dropped game one of its doubleheader against Southern Indiana 4-1. The team won game two 12-5 before splitting its doubleheaders with No. 10 Indianapolis and Northern Kentucky last weekend.
         “It was a very disappointing weekend. I wasn’t very happy with our offense. We have been playing a lot better but didn’t have very good at-bats and lost a game in the standings.”
         Despite the disappointment in offense, Collins said he was pleased with his pitchers.
         “I thought Matt Wilkinson (Melbourne, Australia), Dave Crouthers (Edwardsville), Bret Giaudrone (Gillespie) and Nick Seibert (Worden) pitched well. Seibert kept us in the game until we could score runs.”
         Wilkinson and Seibert each picked up wins this weekend. Wilkinson earned two wins last weekend with a 12-5 victory against Southern Indiana and a 6-1 win against Indianapolis on Saturday. He improved his record to 7-0 on the season.
         Seibert earned his first win of the year (1-2) by pitching 5.1 innings, allowing two runs on four hits and striking out five batters against Northern Kentucky. Seibert also set the SIUE record with 24 consecutive hits, breaking Mark Briggs’ record of 23 straight games in 1996, against Southern Indiana in game two. Seibert, whose hitting streak was snapped in game one against Indianapolis, finished the week 6-for-23 with two home runs and six runs batted in.
         Crouthers pitched 11.1 innings, giving up seven runs on five hits and striking out eight batters in his two stints on the mound last week. He earned losses (6-6) in both games, losing to Southern Indiana 4-1 and Northern Kentucky 5-4.
         Giaudrone pitched in four games last week. He threw 7.0 innings of relief, giving up two runs on three hits and striking out eight batters. Giaudrone earned his 10th save of the season against Northern Kentucky in game two.
         Collins also said that Chad Opel (Edwardsville) had quality at-bats. Opel finished the week 9 for 22 with two doubles, a triple, a home run, five runs scored and five RBI. Opel improved his average to .337 and leads the team with 59 runs scored.
         -siue-