CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Nelson Martz tossed seven strong innings and SIUE took advantage of six Austin Peay errors Friday night in a 7-4 win to open a three-game Ohio Valley Conference baseball series at Raymond C. Hand Park.

SIUE improved to 19-24 overall and 7-15 in the OVC. Austin Peay fell to 20-23 overall and 11-13 in the OVC.

"It was a good way to start the weekend," SIUE Head Coach Sean Lyons said. "We had some really good execution on the offensive side that opened some things up for us and got the ball rolling."

The Cougars capitalized on two errors in the third inning to go up 1-0. Aaron Goecks reached on an error to start the inning. Eric Giltz laid down a sacrifice bunt which was misplayed, allowing him to reach. Mario Tursi then executed a sacrifice bunt to move both runners ahead and Alec Skender singled to drive home Goecks.

It was more of the same in the fourth inning. Jared McCunn led off the inning and was hit by a pitch. Jordan Stading followed with a bunt single to the right side. Aaron Goecks reached on a bunt single and an error allowed McCunn to score from third. Giltz then bunted and reached on an error for the second straight inning. Stading scored on the play. Tursi laid down the fourth straight in the inning which moved Goecks to third. Skender followed with an RBI single to make it 4-0.

"We executed some small ball tonight," Lyons said. "It got things rolling for us. We took advantage of their miscues and our guys did a nice job executing."

Dustin Woodcock walked to lead off the fifth inning, stole second base and went to third base on an errant throw. McCunn drove in Woodcock with a sacrifice fly to right to make it 5-0 Cougars.

Josh Rye (6-2) allowed all five runs, two earned, in six innings. He took the loss for Austin Peay. He walked two and struck out five.

Martz (6-4) was perfect through the first four innings and hadn't allowed a run through five.

"He really had a strong outing for us tonight," Lyons said of his starter. "He did a great job early. The pace of the game was quick and he was in the zone. He had command of all three pitches. They would put balls in play and we'd make the plays."

The Governors scored three times on three hits in the sixth to trim the SIUE lead to 5-3. Martz bounced back with two strikeouts in a scoreless seventh. He allowed just the three runs on six hits. He didn't walk a batter and struck out six.

"He had a little hiccup in the sixth and it kind of let them back in," Lyons added. "We rode through it. We got to the end where we were able to turn it over to Mason."

McReaken tossed the final two innings. He allowed a run on a solo home run in the ninth. He struck out one.

The Cougars added two runs in the top of the ninth on RBI hits from Skender and Keaton Wright. Skender and Stading had three hits apiece for the Cougars. Skender finished with three RBIs. Wright was 2 for 5.

Austin Peay finished with just seven hits. Nobody had more than a single hit.

The teams will play the second game of the series Saturday. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.