EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – SIUE baseball won its second Ohio Valley Conference series of the year, taking two of three from UT Martin after a doubleheader split Saturday at Roy E. Lee Field.
The Cougars won game one of the doubleheader 6-5 before dropping game two 11-9 in 10 innings.
SIUE moved to 5-4 in OVC play and 11-21 overall. UT Martin is 4-5 on the OVC and 12-21 overall.
"I'd call it a really good, hard-fought series between the two of us," SIUE Head Coach Sean Lyons said. "We lost a tough battle in game three. It feels good to win a series, but it's disappointing to not be able to finish the job this afternoon."
The Cougars got out in front in a hurry in game one when Lucas Spence led off the first inning with a home run down the right field line.
UT Martin went ahead with two in the second inning, but the Cougars tied things with a run in the third inning on a Ryan NiedzWiedz single. Niedzwiedz connected for a two-run home run in the fifth inning to push the Cougars' lead to 4-2.
The Skyhawks tied the game again with a two-run home run from Blaze Bell in the sixth. The Cougars' regained the lead when Zack Floyd reached on an error, allowing a run to score in the bottom of the inning. SIUE then made it 6-4 with three hits in the eighth inning, including a run-scoring single from Drew Mize.
UT Martin pushed a run across in the ninth, but couldn't get another.
Joseph Martin (2-0) finished the sixth inning to pick up the win. Alex Rodriguez started and tossed 5.2 innings. He gave up three runs on four hits. He struck out five.
"We got a pretty quality start from Alex in his return to a starting role," Lyons said. "That was good to see."
Liam McKillop started the ninth before Duncan McLaughlin finished the game to earn his third save of the year. He struck out two.
Mac Danford's two-run home run in the top of the 10th inning gave UT Martin the 11-9 win in game two.
Kyle Athmer (1-2) gave up the home run. He allowed the two runs in 1.1 innings in relief. Garrett Helsel allowed just a run in 4.1 innings in relief.
"Helsel did a really nice job in long relief to stretch it out for us," Lyons added.
Danford's homer came an inning after the Skyhawks tied the game on a Hunter McLean two-run homer in the top of the ninth.
With the game tied 7-7 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Drew Mize led off the frame with an infield hit. Lucas Spence reached on bunt base hit. Both runners moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Chase Bloomer. Ryn Niedzwiedz was intentionally walked and Ethan Willoughby lined a two-run single into short center field to put the Cougars up 9-7.
Niedzwiedz and John Stallcup hit solo home runs in the first and second innings, respectively to get SIUE out to a 2-0 lead.
After UT Martin picked up a run in the top of third, the Cougars got a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning. Back-to-back singles from Lucas Spence and Chase Bloomer started the inning before Niedzwiedz was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Ethan Willoughby scored on a fielder's choice hit to second and Bloomer stole home on a double steal with Willoughby, who stole second base.
The Skyhawks scored five times off a pair of SIUE relievers in the fourth inning and then added a run in the sixth to lead 7-4.
SIUE used three consecutive one-out hits in the sixth to score twice. Mack Mitchell and Drew Mize each doubled before Spence tripled. Spence then scored on a sacrifice fly by Chase Bloomer to tie the score at 7-7.
UT Martin outhit SIUE 15-13 in game two.
Mize finished with six hits and two RBIs in the doubleheader. Spence was 5-10 with five runs scored. With multiple hits in each game, Spence extended his hitting streak to a team-best 17 games. It is the longest for SIUE since the 2009 season.
Niedzwiedz had four hits and four RBIs for the day.
"The guys competed and battled all day long," Lyons added. "Trying to sweep is difficult to do. We felt like we kind of let one slip through the cracks, but all in all it was a good day."
SIUE will play a Tuesday contest at Missouri before going to Eastern Illinois to continue OVC play Friday.
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