EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – SIUE baseball nearly pulled out another comeback win, falling short to Little Rock 12-9 in the final game of a three-game series at Roy E. Lee Field.

The Cougars dipped 10-8 in the Ohio Valley Conference and 18-25-1 overall. Little Rock moved back into first place in the league at 11-7. The Trojans are 24-19 overall. SIUE is among a groupf of five teams tied for second place with identical 10-8 league records.

Little Rock led 3-0 when the Cougars scored a pair of runs in the second on RBI-hits from Daniel Gierer and Lucas Spence.

The Trojans then scored seven two-out runs on six hits in the third to take a 10-2 lead. Little Rock hit three home runs in the first three innings.

"With the wind and the conditions, it was an offensive kind of day," SIUE Head Coach Sean Lyons said. Little Rock came out of the gate swinging. They kind of knocked us on our heels a little bit and we had a tough time getting back into it."

Duncan McLaughlin (1-2) allowed seven runs over the first 2.2 innings. He struck out one. Garrett Helsel allowed three runs on two hits. In less than inning.

John Stallcup doubled off the fence in left center ahead of back-to-back home runs by Gierer and Zack Floyd in the fourth inning to make it 10-5.

It was 11-5 Little Rock when SIUE scored twice more in the fifth. Stallcup walked and scored on a single by Floyd. Gierer singled and then stole home as part of a double steal to cut the lead to 11-7.

The Cougars trailed 12-7 in the bottom of the ninth. Gage Franck was hit by a pitch and scored on a double by Ryan Niedzwiedz. Niedzwiedz scored when Chase Bloomer grounded into a double play for the 12-9 final.

"Our guys fought back and we got ourselves within a swing of the bat to tie it up or take the lead," Lyons said.

Ian Benner threw a scoreless inning in relief and struck out two. Jacob Kampf worked 3.2 innings in relief, allowing a pair of home runs. He struck out three.  

"Jacob Kampf came out of the pen and gave us a couple of really good innings," Lyons said. "He kept (Litte Rock) at bay. He allowed a couple of runs over 3.2 and on a day like today that's pretty good."

Lucas Spence finished the game on the mound. He tossed 1.1 scoreless innings with a strikeout.

SIUE finished with 13 hits for the game and 40 hits over the three-game series.

Gierer was 3-4 with three RBIs and three runs scored. Spence was 3-4 with an RBI. Floyd was 204 with two RBIs.

SIUE goes on the road to face Southern Indiana in a three-game OVC series beginning Friday.

"Look at the standings, everybody is jumbled together," Lyons said. "On the right day, anybody can beat anybody. You had better show up ready to play every weekend. The next three weekends are going to be fun."