EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – SIUE baseball completed the three-game sweep of Eastern Illinois with a 5-2 win Saturday at Simmons Baseball Complex.
SIUE improved to 19-11 overall and 5-4 in Ohio Valley Conference play. EIU fell to 15-12 overall and 1-5 in the league.
The sweep is the first for the Cougars in OVC play since April 22-23 of last year when they swept Austin Peay. It is SIUE's first sweep of Eastern Illinois since March 2013.
"This was a really good weekend and truly in all phases of the game," SIUE Head Coach Sean Lyons said. "We got strong pitching, timely hitting and we played pretty clean baseball throughout the course of the weekend. To be able to sweep is big for the boys and I am proud of the way they played."
The Cougars scored three times in the seventh to break a 2-2 tie. Josh Ohl led off the frame with his second home run of the year. Brady Bunten drove home a run with a single and Avery Owusu-Asiedu made it 5-2 with a run-scoring groundout.
"We got the big home run from Josh after we tied it up and that changed the momentum," Lyons said. "That at-bat got us going and we were able to score three."
Kyle Ratliff tied the game at 2-2 in the sixth with a sacrifice squeeze to bring home Brennan Orf. Logan Smith scored on a wild pitch in the third to get SIUE on the board first in the game.
Bunten paced the Cougars with a 3-for-4 day at the plate including a double and an RBI. He was the only hitter with more than a single hit.
Eastern Illinois outhit SIUE 9-7 in the game.
Teague Conrad started and worked six innings for the Cougars. He allowed the two runs on eight hits. He struck out six. Garrett Helsel (3-0) worked 1 2/3 scoreless innings in relief to earn the win. Jacob Kampf, making his second appearance in as many games, worked the final 1 1/3 innings to pick up his second save.
Lyons stressed SIUE's defense in the series as well.
"We had some great defensive plays today," he said. "The left side of the infield had some tremendous defensive plays today. You need that effort to win any game, but certainly a close game at home."
Blake Malatestinic (2-3) started and worked the first six innings. He surrendered four runs, two earned, on six hits. He struck out six.
SIUE goes on the road for the next five, beginning with a Tuesday contest at Bradley. The Cougars will take their bye weekend from OVC play with a trip to face VMI.
"It's going to be a long trip, but it's going to give an opportunity to guys that may need to heal a little bit," Lyons said. "It will lighten the load a little bit and break things up in the middle of the OVC season."
