WICHITA, Kan. – SIUE baseball dropped the final game of a three-game series 7-5 to Wichita State Sunday. The Shockers won the series, winning two of three.

The Cougars are now 1-4. Wichita State is 2-3.

The Shockers scored three times in the first and led 4-0 after two innings and all seven of their runs came in the first four innings.

"We didn't get off to the best start today," SIUE Head Coach Sean Lyons said. "We made a couple of defensive miscues that didn't help."

SIUE scored a run in the third on two hits. Connor Kiffer collected the RBI with a base hit. The Cougars scored twice more in the fourth with just a single hit. Brett Pierson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score Tyler Bastunas. Steven Pattan scored on a wild pitch to cut the lead to 5-3 at the time.

It was 7-3 in the seventh when Brady Bunten tripled to dive home a run and Avery Owusu-Asiedu singled to bring in another.

"Our guys did a great job of continuing to fight," Lyons said said. "We had a lot of traffic on the bases we just couldn't get that big hit."

Brett Johnson and Kiffer were both on base in the ninth when Brennan Orf flied out to end the game.

"Brennan demolished that ball for the last out of the day," Lyons said. "It just got held up by the wind."

Kaid Karnes (0-1) started and took the loss for SIUE. He allowed all seven runs, six earned in the start.

Rob Parks worked 3 1/3 scoreless innings in relief for the Cougars. He allowed a single hit and struck out one.

"Rob Parks was able to give us three strong innings," Lyons said. "He was very efficient and he held them in check. Our original plan was maybe an inning or an inning and a third, but he was so efficient we ended up getting 3 1/3 innings out of him."

Pierson was the only player with more than a single hit for the Cougars, who finished with eight hits as a team. Pierson was 2-4 with the RBI.

Paxton Wallace was 2-4 with a pair of RBIs for the Shockers. He finished with 11 RBIs in the series.

SIUE returns home to begin a season-long eight-game home stand.

"We're looking forward to getting back home," Lyons said. "We learned a lot about our team. They showed a lot offensively with the way they have grinded out at-bats. We swung the bats pretty well today, we just didn't have a lot of show for it."

SIUE plays host to Saint Louis Tuesday at Simmons Complex. First pitch is set for 3 p.m.

"Our guys have great energy and they are competing for one another," Lyons added. "That is great to see and it bodes well for the season."