After struggling throughout the season, the SIUE baseball team put together a valiant effort in the home portion of their schedule but just missed qualifying for its ninth straight Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament.
        The Cougars won eight of their last 10 games and were just two games away from qualifying for the tournament, one they have not missed since the Cougars joined the conference in 1996.
        "The team could have quit when we were struggling, but they didn't," Coach Gary Collins said. "We finished it as best we could; it was just a few games too late."
        The Cougars finished the year seventh in the conference standings with a 20-32 overall record and 17-22 mark in the GLVC. Only the top six teams advance to the tournament, which will begin Thursday at GMC Stadium in Sauget, Ill.
        Luke Humphrey (Rantoul) and Wes Pickering (Springfield, Mo.), both four-year players, played their final games in a Cougar uniform last weekend, when the Cougars took three of four from Bellarmine.
        "Both Wes and Luke were solid players here for us," Collins said. "They played well on some good teams."
        Craig Ohlau (Chester) finished the year with a team-high .331 batting average. Ron Jones (Kankakee) led the pitching staff with a 6-1 record and a 1.42 earned run average.
        With the majority of its pitching staff and starting lineup returning for next season, Collins hopes this late-season surge will pay dividends in 2005.
       
       
                -siue cougars-