MARTIN, Tenn. – SIUE baseball picked up a 10-7 win before falling 9-8 in the late game as the Cougars split a doubleheader Saturday at UT Martin.
SIUE is 16-9 overall and 2-3 in Ohio Valley Conference play. UT Martin is 8-20 overall but 3-2 in league play.
With the game tied 3-3, SIUE took control in the top of the fifth inning. The Cougars scored seven runs on five hits, three walks and an error. Brennan Orf doubled, and Brady Bunten singled to start the inning before Avery Owusu-Asiedu walked to load the bases. Kyle Ratliff and Ole Arntson each walked in runs and Josh Ohl reached on an error to score another run. John Stallcup drove home a run with a single and Brady Bunten lined into a double play in his second at-bat of the inning, but Stallcup was able to score before the play was completed to make it 10-4.
"We put a lot of good swings on the ball," SIUE Head Coach Sean Lyons said. "It was a line drive kind of day. We took advantage of some free bases and capitalized on some miscues, but that's how big inning are created."
UT Martin scored three runs in the first against SIUE starter Jake Bockenstedt, but the Cougars tied the game with three in the second inning. Ohl drove in a run with a single and Chase Bloomer scored two with a hit.
Bockenstedt (3-1) worked six innings allowing just the three first-inning runs on eight hits for the win. He stuck out six.
"Bockenstedt did a nice job of settling in after a tough start," Lyons added. "It was good for him to come back."
Hayden Cooper pitched a scoreless ninth, with a strikeout, to earn his first save of the year.
Stallcup and Bloomer each finished with three hits for the Cougars, who outhit the Skyhawks 15-12 in the game.
"Chase Bloomer and John Stallcup had big days for us," Lyons continued. "Our guys responded well after the early runs."
In game two, UT Martin scored five unanswered runs, including three in the bottom of the ninth to grab a 9-8 walkoff-win from SIUE.
Tyler DeLong (2-2) suffered the game two loss. He gave up a pair of hits, walked one and hit a batter. UT Martin's Jack Culumovic and Mac Danford each drove home runs with hits in the inning.
"It was a tough way to finish the day," Lyons said. "We just were not able to finish it off. (UT Martin) kept chipping way and they got a couple of big hits."
The Cougars snapped a 1-1 tie with a five-run third inning. SIUE banged out five hits in the inning. Bloomer and Drew Mize singled to start the inning and Orf walked to load the bases. Bunten singled to drive in two and Owusu-Asiedu followed with an RBI-double. Arntson reached on a fielder's choice to pick up an RBI and Ohl singled to drive in another.
Orf scored on a wild pitch in the fourth inning to extend SIUE's lead to 7-1.
The Skyhawks trimmed the SIUE lead with a run in the fifth and two in the sixth to make it 7-4. Arntson made it 8-4 with and RBI-hit in the seventh.
UT Martin then scored a run in the bottom of the seventh and another in the eighth to make it an 8-6 game going to the ninth inning.
Owusu-Asiedu led SIUE with three hits in the nightcap. Orf, Bunten, Ohl and Bloomer each two hits.
The Cougars and the Skyhawks finish the series Sunday with a 1 p.m. game.
"Our guys know what it will take to win a series," Lyons said. "We'll be ready to go."
