Baseball

Cougars take driver's seat in GLVC Tournament
         The opening round of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Baseball Tournament saw two upsets and the host Cougars move into a good position.
         Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (34-22) defeated Missouri-Saint Louis (29-22) 6-3 in the third and final game of the first round of the tournament. The Cougars pounded out 10 hits and took advantage of four Rivermen errors to move into the second round of the six-team double-elimination tournament.
         The Cougars' victory was magnified after No. 1 seed Indianapolis (44-13) fell to No. 6 Northern Kentucky (37-19) 5-3 in the second game of the day. The Cougars are now the top seeded team without a loss and will face Southern Indiana (28-27) Friday at 3:30. Southern Indiana defeated Wisconsin-Parkside (38-17) 4-2 in the morning game on Thursday.
         Dave Crouthers (Edwardsville) started on the mound for the Cougars and improved his record to 8-6 with the win. Crouthers threw seven innings, giving up six hits and two runs. He struck out seven and walked four. Bret Giaudrone (Gillespie) picked up his 12th save after allowing one hit and one unearned run in two innings of work.
         After falling behind 1-0 in the second inning, the Cougars came back with two runs of their own in their half of the second. Crouthers helped his own cause with a leadoff triple to the gap in left field. Nick Seibert (Worden) followed with an RBI ground ball to second, but reached base on a throwing error. A Josh Cate (Imperial, Mo.) double gave the Cougars a 2-1 lead.
         The Cougars added another run in the third and two more in the fourth inning. Mark Bugger's (Edwardsville) double in the third inning drove in Chad Opel (Edwardsville), who had tripled.
         Bugger went 2 for 5 and pushed his career hits total to 337, just four shy of the NCAA Division II record of 341. With Thursday's win, Bugger is guaranteed at least two more games this season to break the record. -siue-