Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Baseball	SIUE Baseball SIUE Athletics

May 14, 2007 SIUE Faces Saginaw Valley in NCAA Opener         EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University Edwardsville will make its 22nd appearance in the NCAA Division II Baseball Championships Thursday in Akron, Ohio.         The Cougars, 37-15, will be the No. 3 seed in the North Central Regional and will play fourth-seeded Saginaw Valley State, 33-12, in the first round. The first pitch is scheduled for 9 p.m. EST and will be broadcast live on SIUE's Web Radio at http://www.siue.edu/WEBRADIO/.         SIUE plays the final game of day one in what will be a quadrupleheader at Canal Park. The Akron Aeros, a Class AA team of the Cleveland Indians organization, plays at 10:30 a.m. followed by top-seeded Grand Valley State, 42-7, against sixth-seeded Drury, 31-22, at 3 p.m. and second-seeded Ashland, 38-17, against fifth-seeded Southern Indiana, 37-21, at 6 p.m.         SIUE Coach Gary Collins has put together a ballclub which posted the best regular season record of 26-10 in Great Lakes Valley Conference play. The Cougars were ousted 5-4 by Drury, the eventual league champions.         The offense for the Cougars has been off and on of late. The Cougars scored 34 runs on 52 hits in their four games in the GLVC Tournament.         Ben Bartley (Griffith, Ind.) led SIUE with 10 hits in the league tournament with seven RBIs. Ryan Czyz (Ottawa) followed with eight hits.         SIUE's offense enters the GLVC Tournament with a .308 batting average. The Cougars are averaging nearly 10 hits per game. Last season's NCAA Tournament team averaged just more than eight hits per game.         The pitching staff has been equally strong. The Cougars have three pitchers with six wins and boast a 2.40 earned run average heading into the national championships. NCAA Division II Baseball North Central Regional at Akron, Ohio Thu., May 17 Game 1 - #1 Grand Valley (42-7) vs. #6 Drury (31-22), 3 pm Game 2 - #2 Ashland (38-17) vs. #5 Southern Indiana (37-21), 6 pm Game 3 - #3 SIU Edwardsville (37-15) vs. #4 Saginaw Valley State (33-12), 9 pm                 -siue cougars-