MARION, Ill. – SIUE baseball's historic season came to a close Saturday as the Cougars fell to Little Rock 7-5 in an elimination game at the OVC Tournament at MTN Dew Park.
The Cougars, the OVC Regular Season Champions for the first time, finished at 33-24, marking their most wins in Division I history.
Little Rock (34-26) advanced to the Championship Series where it will face Eastern Illinois for the OVC title.
The Trojans took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Nico Baumbach connected for a solo home run to left.
Sean Kang tied the score in the bottom of the inning with an infield hit to short to drive in Wiloughby who had walked to start the inning. A Brenden Fry groundout put the Cougars up 2-1 before Daniel Gierer roped a double off the left field fence for a 3-1 lead.
The lead was short-lived for SIUE as the Trojans scored three times in the fourth. Cooper Chaplain hit a two-run home run to tie the score and Blake Simpson and Baumbach had RBI hits to make it 5-3 Little Rock.
SIUE starter Jase Phillips walked a batter before exiting for Noah Johnson in the fourth. Johnson walked one and hit two batters as the Trojans loaded the bases twice. A fielder's choice brought a run in to push the Little Rock lead to 6-3. Brennen Grams relieved Johnson and got a groundout to strand the bases loaded.
Grams pitched a career-high 3.1 innings. He allowed a run on five hits. He struck out three.
Joshua Heyder roped a double off the left field fence to trim the lead to 6-4 in the fifth, but Little Rock answered with a run on two hits in the sixth inning for a 7-4 advantage.
SIUE loaded the bases with one out in the sixth inning but settled for a single run on a groundout by Ryan Niedzwiedz.
Gierer, Chase Bloomer and Mack Mitchell each had two hits to lead the Cougars.
Bloomer finished the season with 242 career hits, the most in SIUE's Division I history and good for sixth overall in program history.
SIUE outhit Little Rock 12-9 in the game but left 10 runners on base. Â
Joseph Martin and Easton Harris combined for two scoreless innings out of the SIUE bullpen.
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