SIUE Cougars (30-21) at SIU Carbondale (21-28)
May12, 6 p.m.
Itchy Jones Stadium
Carbondale, Illinois

SIUE Starter: RHP Brady Coon

WINNING WAYS: SIUE has won eight straight games. The 30 wins are the most in the Division I era, and the most since 2007 when the Cougars won 37 games.

HOW SWEEP IT IS: SIUE has swept their last two weekend series and four total in OVC play (at Morehead St., vs. Tennessee Tech, vs. Lindenwood, 
at Eastern Illinois).

SERIES STUFF: SIUC leads the all-time series 33-8 and has a 21-2 advantage in Carbondale. The Cougars picked up the win in March in Edwardsville.

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.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: Ryan Niedzwiedz picked up his second Player of the Week award Monday from the OVC. Terrick Thompson-Allen was 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 March 24. Josh Heyder won his first career OVC Player of the Week award March 16. Niedzwiedz earned his first award March 2. He also was named to Baseball America's Team of the Week March 3.

HOMER HAPPY: SIUE homered 17 times last weekend at Eastern Illinois and lead the OVC and rank 10th in the NCAA with 97 home runs so far this season. The Cougars rank 11th in the country at 1.90 home runs per game. The 97 homers rank second in a Division I season for SIUE. The school record is 99 home runs hit in 2022. Individually, Niedzwiedz leads the league and ranks fourth nationally with 26 home runs. Mack Mitchell ranks third in the league with 15 home runs. 

HOMER RECORDS: Niedzwiedz homered five times last weekend and has the school record 45 for his career at SIUE. Mitchell has hit 37 in his career, to rank second. Niedzwiedz also now owns the single-season record at 26.

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 sweep of the Eagles. 

D1 HIT KING: Chase Bloomer became SIUE's Division I hits leader during the series at Eastern Illinois. He now has 236 hits in his career. That ranks sixth all-time at SIUE.