Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Baseball	SIUE Baseball SIUE Athletics

February 21, 2005 Cougars Travel to CMSU         Southern Illinois University Edwardsville baseball team travels to the Central Missouri State Tournament in Warrensburg, Mo., trying to erase the memory of an 0-2 start at North Alabama this past weekend.         The Cougars fell to North Alabama 7-1 and Delta State 8-1 on Saturday before the game on Sunday was a wash.         "I thought the pitching pitched a lot better than the scores indicated," said SIUE baseball coach Gary Collins. "I thought our pitchers threw really well."         In the loss to North Alabama, Cameron Cheek (Atlanta) threw three plus innings, giving up one run on two hits. Freshman Cody Litteken (St. Jacob) threw a scoreless inning as well.         Kyle Jones (New Baden) made the start in game two, going three innings giving up five hits and two earned runs. Derek Stratman (O'Fallon) had a perfect inning striking out three.         Robert Rahn (Wood River) had the team's lone home run in the two games. The Cougars offense never got rolling as the team managed only six hits in the two contests.         "I was not pleased with our offense," said Collins. "I didn't think that anyone took any real good swings. We just didn't hit any balls hard."         SIUE plays Winona State on Friday at 1 p.m., then battles Nebraska-Omaha on Saturday at noon, before finishing out the tournament against Central Missouri State on Sunday at 2 p.m.         "I am not going to judge us by what we did this last weekend," said Collins. "This upcoming weekend will be a little more telling. The teams we will be playing are just like us. They haven't been practicing outdoors for five weeks."                 -siue cougars-