CLARKSVILLE, Ill. – SIUE baseball scored five unanswered runs, but fell short, dropping the finale of a three-game Ohio Valley Conference series at Austin Peay Saturday.

The Cougars lost two of three in the series and stand at 9-9 in OVC play and 18-16 overall. Austin Peay is 11-10 in the OVC and 14-23 overall.

"It was a tough weekend," SIUE Head Coach Sean Lyons said. "You have two teams battling to make some headway in the standings and we came up short."

SIUE trailed 7-1 heading into the eighth inning when they plated three runs in the inning. The Cougars used five hits to drive home three. Raul Elguezabal drove home a run with a hit and Ole Arntson picked up two RBIs with a single. The Cougars scored twice more in the ninth inning on a Connor Kiffer two-run hit. The Cougars left a pair on when the game ended.

"We've have a team of guys that battled all the way until the end as we have all year," Lyons said. "It's tough when you feel like you had some opportunity to make some noise earlier in the game and when we didn't it leads to higher pressure situations at the end of the game."

SIUE finished with 11 hits, but left nine runners on base.

The Govs took a 3-0 lead on the strength of four hits in the third inning. Garrett Spain plated two with a triple.

Before the final push, the lone SIUE run came in the fourth when Brady Bunten drove home a run with a sacrifice fly.

APSU extended its lead to 4-1 with a run in the fifth inning. Spain picked up another RBI with an infield hit as part of a three-run sixth inning to push the advantage to 7-1.

Elguezabal finished the game 3-5, while Richie Well, Kiffer, Arntson and Bunten each had two hits.

Brant Glidewell (4-1) allowed four runs in five innings in the loss. He struck out six.

Spain was 4-5 with three RBIs for Austin Peay.

The Cougars face Illinois State Tuesday on the road before returning home for a series with Eastern Illinois. SIUE currently is fifth in the OVC standings. The top four advance to the Conference Championship.

"We have to continue to battle over the last four weekends," Lyons added.