EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – SIUE baseball closed out its home season with a 6-2 win over Eastern Illinois Sunday to move back into a first-place tie in the Ohio Valley Conference.

The Cougars improved to 16-8 in OVC play with the win. Eastern Illinois is 14-7 in the league. Tennessee Tech also is 16-8. All three have a .667 winning percentage ahead of the last weekend of league play.

For the first time in the series, SIUE struck first, scoring a first-inning run. Mack Mitchell was hit by a pitch to lead off the first inning. He moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Daniel Gierer and scored on a one-out single by Chase Bloomer.

Eastern Illinois scored runs in the second and third innings to take a 2-1 lead before the Cougars went on top for good in the bottom of the third.

Gierer singled with two outs before Bloomer walked. Ryan Niedzwiedz looped a double into shallow center to score both runners to put the Cougars up 3-2.

The Cougars scored three more in the fifth on four hits. Mitchell and Joshua Heyder both drove home runs with hits. Niedzwiedz added a run with a sacrifice fly to push the lead to 6-2.

Kyle Athmer (3-1) threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings for the win. He allowed two hits and struck out one. Garrett Helsel started for the Cougars and gave up two runs in four innings. He struck out three.

Bloomer finished with two hits, two runs a walk and three stolen bases. Niedzwiedz was 1-3 with three RBIs.

The Cougars will play at SIU Carbondale Tuesday before finishing the OVC season with a three-game series at UT Martin starting Thursday.