MARTIN, Tenn. – SIUE blasted seven home runs Friday on its way to an 18-10 win over UT Martin in the second game of a three-game Ohio Valley Conference series at Skyhawk Field.
SIUE improved to 18-8 in OVC play and is guaranteed of at least a No. 2 seed (and double bye) in the OVC Tournament which begins next week in Marion, Illinois. The Cougars have the most wins in the OVC with 18, but trail Eastern Illinois by percentage points for first place.
The Cougars have now won seven of nine OVC series this season.
SIUE is 26-26 overall. UT Martin dropped to 11-14 in the league and 20-33 overall.
The seven home runs is one shy of the SIUE single-game record in Division I. The 18 runs match a season high. Five different players homered Friday for the Cougars including Chase Bloomer and Daniel Gierer, who each homered twice. Mack Mitchell hit his 19th home run of the year, which ties for second on SIUE's single-season list. Ryan Niedzwiedz and Kyle Ratliff also homered for the Cougars.
SIUE got out to a 5-0 lead and never looked back. The Cougars led 10-3 after six innings. SIUE made it 13-3 in the seventh, but UTM scored four times in the bottom of the inning to cut it back to 13-7. The Cougars then added three runs in the eighth and two more in the ninth inning.
Mitchell, Bloomer and Niedzwiedz all finished with three hits for SIUE. Mitchell, Gierer and Ratliff each had three RBIs. Ethan Willoughby had two hits and two RBIs.
Joseph Martin (4-0) tossed 1 1/3 innings in relief to score the win. Spencer Stearns started and threw 4 2/3 innings. He allowed just two earned runs and struck out seven.
Zach Wager (5-8) started for the Skyhawks and allowed seven runs, four earned, in four innings in the loss.
SIUE can win its first-ever Ohio Valley Conference championship with a win in Saturday's regular-season finale and an Eastern Illinois loss against Western Illinois.
