After splitting a home doubleheader with second-place University of Missouri-Saint Louis, the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville baseball team leads the Great Lakes Valley Conference South Division by three games with four to play.
         A win tomorrow at UM-St. Louis (27-16, 14-9 GLVC) would clinch the division title for the Cougars (31-20, 17-6), making them the hosts of the GLVC Tournament. A loss would keep the Rivermen's division title hopes alive.
         After defeating the Rivermen 8-1 in the first game, the party was put on hold after falling 3-2 in 10 innings in the second game.
         Matt Wilkinson (Melbourne, Australia) started the first game on the mound for the Cougars and improved his record to 8-0. He gave up two hits in a seven inning complete game. He also fanned 11 and walked one and his only run allowed was unearned.
         The Cougars broke the game open in the fifth inning when back-to-back home runs by Mark Bugger (Edwardsville) and Dave Crouthers (Edwardsville) put them ahead 6-1.
         Luke Humphrey (Rantoul) started off the fifth with a triple. He was followed by an infield hit by Chad Opel (Edwardsville). With runners on first and third, Bugger tagged his fifth home run of the year. Two pitches later Crouthers made it 6-1 with a line drive home run to left field.
         The Cougars added two more in the sixth inning on Bugger's third hit of the day. The eight runs were more than enough for Wilkinson, who retired the last nine Rivermen batters.
         SIUE got on the board first in game two with a RBI single by Todd Haug (Edwardsville) in the third inning. After UM-St. Louis tied the score in the fourth, Humphrey put the Cougars back on top with his third home run of the year.
         Dave Crouthers started on the mound for the Cougars. He went six and two-thirds innings before being taken out after a wild pitch allowed the tying run to score for the Rivermen. Crouthers gave up five hits, two earned runs and two walks while striking out eight.
         Bret Giaudrone came into relieve Crouthers and went three and a third innings before allowing the final two runs of the game in an error-plagued tenth inning.
         With one out in the top of the tenth inning Jason Meyer reached first base on an error. The next batter singled to right field and was caught in a run down between first and second base. During the run down, Meyer broke for home. The ball was thrown home to try and get Meyer out, but it went over catcher Todd Haug's head, allowing Meyer to score and the batter to reach third base. Scott Miller then hit a sacrifice fly to right field for the final run of the game.
         -siue-