EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Lucas Spence and Ryan Niedzwiedz had four hits and four RBIs apiece and SIUE baseball enjoyed its best offensive output of the year in a 14-6 win on the road at Evansville Tuesday night.

SIUE improved to 8-17 overall. Evansville fell to 9-15.

The Cougars outhit Evansville 17-7. The 14 runs and 17 are both season highs for the Cougars.

"We played well tonight across the board," SIUE Head Coach Sean Lyons said. "We wanted to see some guys on the mound, which we did, and we got some big offensive performances."

Trailing 5-3 after five innings, the Cougars reeled off 11 runs between the sixth and ninth innings.

The Cougars pulled within a run when Daniel Gierer's double scored Gage Franck in the sixth inning to make it 5-4. SIUE then took the lead in the seventh, taking advantage of two Aces' errors and a balk to score two runs.

Spence roped a two-run triple to center in the eighth inning to extend SIUE's lead to 8-5 and Niedzwiedz picked up an RBI when he reached on a fielder's choice which brought Spence to the plate.

Spence and Niedzwiedz each drove in two more runs with singles in a five-run ninth inning. Ethan Willoughby added a sacrifice fly to make it 14-5.

Spence finished the game 4-6 with four runs score in addition to his four RBIs. Niedzwiedz was 4-5 with a run scored and four RBIs.

"We got big nights offensively from Lucas Spence and Ryan Niedzwiedz," Lyons said. "We're fortunate that they were coming up with runners on base."

Spence extended his team-leading hitting streak to 10 games. He is hitting .415 for the year, which leads the Ohio Valley Conference.

The Cougars broke out on top in the third inning, thanks to a leadoff home run by Mack Mitchell. Spence reached on an infield single and later scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-0 SIUE.

Evansville took the lead in the fourth inning on a three-run home run by Chase Hug.

A Niedzwiedz RBI-single in the fifth tied the game at three before Evansville regained the lead with two in the bottom of the inning.

Freshman Joseph Martin (1-0) worked three scoreless innings in relief. He struck out four and walked one.  Alex Rodriguez gave up two unearned runs in two innings and struck out one.

"Rodriguez did well out of the pen, but the star tonight was Joe Martin," Lyons said. "It was a tremendous job from him."

Garrett Helsel started and worked three innings. He allowed three runs on the home run, struck out four and did not walk a batter.

"Garrett Helsel pitched well to start," Lyons said. "He gave up the home run and sometimes that's how it goes, but he pitched well."

Evansville used seven pitchers. Jakob Meyer (2-4) allowed two runs an inning of work and was charged with the loss.

Sean Kang, Gierer and Mitchell each finished with two hits for SIUE.

The Cougars resume OVC play with a three-game series Thursday-Saturday at Southeast Missouri.

"Our goal every day is to play quality baseball," Lyons continued. "We've been able to string some good games together and we're looking to carry that into our weekend series."