CHARLESTON, Ill. – SIUE baseball made its 50th game of the season a memorable one. The Cougars homered eight times while toppling several records on their way to a series win. SIUE routed Eastern Illinois 16-4 to win the series and strengthen their hold on first place in the Ohio Valley Conference.
SIUE has won seven in a row and improved to 17-6 in the OVC and has a two-game lead in the league. The Cougars are 29-21, establishing a new program high for wins in a season at the Division I level.
Eastern Illinois fell to 15-8 in the OVC and 28-17 overall.
Chase Bloomer finished the game 3-6 with a home run and two RBIs and broke SIUE's Division I hits record along the way. He now has 233 for his career.
Ryan Niedzwiedz enjoyed the first three-homer game of his career on his way to setting the program record for home runs in a season with 24. The third blast also tied SIUE's single-game record of three homers in a game, last achieved by Bloomer last season. Already the program leader in home runs, Niedzwiedz now has 43 for his career.
Daniel Gierer recorded the first multi-homer game of his career, hitting two and finishing 4-5 with three RBIs.
Cooper Eggert homered and finished with two hits and three RBIs. Brenden Fry finished with a homer, two hits and two RBIs. Mack Mitchell finished with 2 hits and an RBI.
The first four Cougar hitters came up with hits Saturday, with Chase Bloomer putting the Cougars on top with a double to score Daniel Gierer, who doubled to start the game. Ryan Niedzwiedz then hit his first home run of the game to put the Cougars up 3-0.
Niedzwiedz's second blast came with one out in the third to make it 4-0.
The Panthers got on the board with an unearned run in bottom of the third.
Ethan Willoughby walked to start the fourth inning and Eggert followed with a two-run home run to right center to extend SIUE's lead to 6-1.
Bloomer's record hit came with one out in the fourth, as he singled through the right side of the infield.
The Panthers trimmed the lead back to 6-3 with two runs on three hits in the bottom of the fourth inning.
A four-run fifth inning made it a 10-3 Cougar lead. A sacrifice fly from Sean Kang and an infield RBI-hit from Brenden Fry brought home runs before Gierer connected on his fifth home run, a two-run shot, to left field. A single by Mack Mitchell and an error allowed Joshua Heyder to score in the sixth to make it 11-3.
The Panthers picked up another run in the bottom of the seventh when Brett Stanley doubled off SIUE starter Tim Teixeira.
Teixeira (7-5) worked seven innings allowing four runs, three of them earned, on four hits. He struck out four in the win. Brennen Grams tossed two scoreless innings in relief to finish the game. He struck out four.
Niedzwiedz led off the eighth inning with his third home run of the day to break the Cougars' single-season record and push the lead to 12-4. Cooper Eggert added an RBI single in the inning to make it13-4.
Fry, Gierer and Bloomer hit back-to-back-to-back home runs to lead off the ninth inning.
In all, SIUE outhit EIU 18-4 for the game.
The Cougars will play for their fourth sweep in OVC play this season Sunday afternoon in the series finale. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
