Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Baseball	SIUE Baseball SIUE Athletics

Gary Collins

April 23, 2007 SIUE Battling GLVC Leaders         EDWARDSVILLE, ILL. -- As the end of the regular season winds down the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville baseball team finds itself near the top in both the Great Lakes Valley Conference and North Central Region.         SIUE who is now 18-10 in the GLVC and 26-13 overall is tied for third in the conference and two games out of first. The Cougars are ranked fifth in the North Central Region. Still, SIUE Coach Gary Collins isn't taking any team for granted.         "It will be an interesting two weeks because all the top teams are playing each other," said Collins.         The Cougars, who have 10 conference games scheduled before the GLVC Tournament, will play Lewis, Drury and Bellarmine to close out the season.         Drury is currently tied for third in the GLVC with SIUE. Southern Indiana has a one-game lead, and Bellarmine is just one-half game back of first. All four of the teams enter the week with 10 losses.         "I like our schedule the rest of the way," said Collins.         After SIUE's road game against Drury Wednesday at 1 p.m. in Springfield, Mo., the Cougars will finish their last 10 games of the season at home.         "There are a lot of good teams in the conference, and it makes things interesting," said Collins.         SIUE boasts the top offense and pitching staff in the GLVC. SIUE has the best batting average at .296 and the lowest earned run average at 2.55.                 -siue cougars-