Baseball

Baseball Looks Ahead to UMSL, NKU
        After picking up two big wins Sunday against Southern Indiana, the SIU Edwardsville baseball team hope to ride some of that momentum when it travels to Missouri-St. Louis for two games and Northern Kentucky for a four-game weekend series.
        The Cougars dropped the first two games of a weekend series with USI but stormed back and with the help of quality pitching and timely hitting swept the Screaming Eagles in Sunday’s doubleheader. With the two wins, the Cougars improved to 10-20 overall and 7-10 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
        “We kept our hopes alive with those two wins,” Coach Gary Collins said. “We are still in the hunt for a conference tournament spot.”
        Once again, it was the pitching staff that came up big for the Cougars. Ron Jones (Kankakee), who has eased through the transition from basketball to baseball, pitched his way into the starting rotation and did not disappoint. The junior pitched five innings in game one of Sunday’s doubleheader and allowed just two hits, both bunt singles, and struck out six while walking one. Jones leads the pitching staff with a 3-0 record and a 1.04 earned run average.
        “He had a great outing against Southern Indiana; he won me over,” Collins said. “I think he’s going to continue to get better, although it will be hard for him to pitch any better than he did Sunday.”
        In game two, it was David Briesacher (Waterloo) who carried the load for the Cougars. Briesacher pitched seven innings in a relief role and allowed only one unearned run and scattered five hits.
        “Briesacher did a wonderful job,” Collins said. “His velocity was up and that made him look like the Briesacher from last year.”
        The Cougars now look at another big week of baseball, playing six games against teams that are close to the Cougars in the GLVC standings.
        Missouri-St. Louis is four spots ahead of the Cougars with a 10-8 GLVC mark. The two teams split a doubleheader earlier this season at Roy Lee Field.
        Northern Kentucky enters the week 8-8 in the GLVC and two spots ahead of the Cougars in the standings.
                -siue cougars-