at Illinois
Champaign/Urbana, Ill. (Eichelberger Field)
Wednesday, March 27, 5 p.m. start
Video: BigTen+
Live Stats: SIUEstats.com
ROAD SWING FINALE
SIUE's five-game road swing ends Wednesday with a single game at Illinois. The Fighting Illini, 12-15 overall, play a single game Tuesday at home against Northern Iowa.
LAST TIME OUT
SIUE sandwiched a win between a pair of one-run losses at UT Martin this past weekend. SIUE is now 2-8 in one-run games.
SERIES RECORDS
SIUE is 0-5 all-time against the Fighting Illini. The series first started in 2017.
LAST SEASON FOR THE COUGARS
SIUE is coming off a 30-26 season in which the Cougars advanced to the title game of the 2023 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. The Cougars won 10 of their last 12 games and the season-best six straight games to close out the regular season. SIUE, the No. 5 seed at the 2023 OVC Championships, knocked out the No. 1, No. 3 and No. 4 seeds in the tournament.
LONGEST HITTING STREAK
Paige Rocha holds the longest hitting streak in Division I heading into the Illinois game. She has recorded a hit in 23 straight games, reaching back to the Texas A&M Commerce series in February. The school record is 27 set by SIUE Hall of Famer Erin Newman in 2001.
SIUE'S TOP FOUR HITTING STREAKS OF DIVISION I ERA
23,
Paige Rocha (2024); 15, Alyssa Heren (2017); 15,
Paige Rocha (2022); 14,
Lexi King (2022)
HIT MACHINE
Rocha recorded a Division I era-best 74 hits last season. It was the most hits by a Cougar since Alicia DeShasier hit 82 in 2006. All four of the players who have more hits in a season by the Cougars now reside in the SIUE Athletics Hall of Fame (DeShasier, Jenny Esker, Katie Waldo and Erin Newman). Rocha continued that trend with a team-leading 45 hits this season. She is ranked 15th nationally while leading the OVC.
COMING UP SOON
SIUE returns home Friday and Saturday for a three-game OVC series against Eastern Illinois, which is atop the league standings.
TOUGHEST TO FAN
Lauren Yslava is fourth in the OVC in toughest to strike out (1 out of every 18.6 AB).
Rylie Pindel is second in the OVC in saves with three. Jenna Heron is second in the OVC in sacrifice bunts per game (9.20).
YEAR TWO
Lone Tree, Iowa, native
Ben Sorden is in his second season as head coach of the Cougars. Sorden came to SIUE after holding positions at Michigan State and Indiana, helping the pitching staffs to national honors and top-notch results.
