SIUE Cougars (21-19) at Missouri (20-20)
April 21, 6 p.m.
Taylor Stadium
Columbia, Missouri

PROBABLE STARTERS: SIUE RHP Brady Coon vs. MIZ LHP Dane Bjorn

LAST WEEK: SIUE split a pair of midweek games before dropping their first OVC series of the year losing two games at Western Illinois.

START ME UP: The Cougars started 8-0 in OVC play, marking the program's best start to a conference season. The previous best was a 6-0 start in 2015.

SERIES STUFF: Mizzou leads the all-time series 20-5. This is the fourth consecutive year the two teams have met and the 11th time since SIUE transitioned to Division I in 2009. Mizzou is 9-2 in the series since then.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: Terrick Thompson-Allen became the third SIUE player to garner OVC Player of the Week honors March 23. He was then tabbed as the National Co-Hitter of the Week by the NCBWA Marcg 24. Josh Heyder won his first career OVC Player of the Week award March 16. Ryan Niedzwiedz earned the award March 2. He also was named to Baseball America's Team of the Week March 3.

HOMER HAPPY: SIUE homered 10 times last week and continue to lead the OVC and rank 16th in the NCAA with 67 home runs so far this season. The Cougars rank 17th in the country at 1.68 home runs per game. Niedzwiedz leads the league and ranks 14th nationally with 17 home runs. Mack Mitchell ranks sixth in the league with 10 home runs. In 2025, SIUE led the league with 77 home runs which was second most in the program's Division I history. The school record is 99 home runs in 2022.

RECORD WATCH: Niedzwiedz hit two home runs at Western Illinois and has 36 for his career, which is the new career record at SIUE. Mitchell has hit 32 in his career, to rank seventh. The previous record of 35 home runs was shared by Brady Bunten and Brock Weimer.
HARD NINE: The Cougars hit a single-game school-record nine home runs March 20 at Morehead State. SIUE hit 19 home runs in the the three-game weekend series with the Eagles. 

EDWARDSVILLE SLUGGERS: The Cougars are second in the OVC and rank 34th nationally in slugging percentage (.498). Niedzwiedz is second in the OVC and is 28th in the NCAA with a .729 slugging percentage. 

COMEBACK COUGARS: SIUE had another midweek comeback, erasing a 4-0 first-inning deficit April 15 on the way to a 15-5 win over Saint Louis. That is the Cougars' fourth large comeback in midweek games this season. The Cougars were down 6-0 after the first at Indiana State Wednesday before getting the 17-9 win. They trailed 5-1 after an inning and a half March 10 against SIU Carbondale before coming back to win 16-6 in eight innings. SIUE was down 7-0 after the top of the first Feb. 24 against Saint Louis then scored 17 unanswered runs to win 17-7 in seven innings. SIUE has eight wins when the opponent scores first.