Baseball

Baseball Prepare for GLVC Tournament
         Despite ending the regular season on a low note, the Cougar baseball team prepares for postseason battle as it hosts the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament this weekend at Roy Lee Field.
         SIUE clinched the tournament after winning the GLVC South Division with a mark of 19-8. However, the Cougars, 33-22 overall, enter the GLVC Tournament as the No. 2 seed behind Indianapolis, who finished the conference season with a 24-3 record. Rounding out the last four seeds are Wisconsin-Parkside, Southern Indiana, Missouri-St. Louis and Northern Kentucky.
         The four-day, double-elimination tournament has three games scheduled on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, beginning each day at 9 a.m. The championship game is scheduled to begin at noon on Sunday.
         First up for the Cougars is their rival across the river, Missouri-St. Louis, at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. The Rivermen finished tied for second in the South Division with a 15-12 mark and bring in an overall record of 29-21. SIUE took two of three from Missouri-St. Louis in conference play, splitting the doubleheader at home and winning the single game on the road.
         Coach Gary Collins said his team has to be ready to play, no matter the opponent.
         “We have to win a couple of games for sure,” said Collins. “I would like to see us get deep into the tournament and even win the whole thing.”
         The Cougars dropped two of three to Kentucky Wesleyan last weekend on the road to finish the regular season.
         “We didn’t play very well at all.”
         SIUE split the doubleheader on Saturday, losing game one 4-3 before winning the nightcap 4-3. The Cougars dropped the final game 8-7.
         Mark Bugger (Edwardsville) and Chad Opel (Edwardsville) each collected five hits over the weekend. Bugger had a 5-for-11 performance with four runs batted in and three runs scored. He continues to lead the team in batting average (.420), hits (89), triples (6) and slugging percentage (.608). Bugger now has 335 career hits and needs seven more to hold the NCAA Division II record in career hits.
         Opel finished the weekend 5 for 12 with a double, triple and three runs scored. He improved his batting average to .363 and leads the team in at-bats (215) and runs scored (69).
         Dave Crouthers (Edwardsville) earned another win on the season and is now 7-6 for the year. He pitched six innings, giving up three runs, two earned, on five hits while striking out three batters. Crouthers has a 2.77 earned run average and leads the team in innings pitched (91.0) and strikeouts (93).
         -siue-