CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – After two quiet days at the plate, SIUE put up 11 runs on 15 hits Sunday, but it came in a losing cause. Austin Peay defeated SIUE 13-11 to sweep the three game Ohio Valley Conference baseball series.
Among the Cougars' 15 hits was senior catcher Brock Weimer's 34th career homerun, establishing a new career record at SIUE. Weimer had been tied with Devin Caldwell, who hit 33 home runs from 2011-2014, since Tuesday.
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"I am really proud of Brock and what he has accomplished at SIUE," SIUE Head Coach Sean Lyons said. "He is the epitome of what a Cougar is on the field and off. What a great accomplishment for him. I hope he hits a whole bunch more as they year goes on."
Weimer's record-breaking blast came leading off the third inning. He hit the first pitch from Austin Peay reliever Ryan Kouba over the left field wall for his 11th home run of the year.
The 15 hits were a season high for the Cougars, who fell to 16-25 overall and 8-13 in the OVC. Austin Peay improved to 24-18 and 16-8 in the OVC.
The Cougars and Governors traded runs each half inning from the second through the fourth, scoring 10 runs apiece.
SIUE posted four runs in the second on seven hits to chase APSU starter Brandon Vial. Jack Rigoni connected on his first career home run in the inning.
Austin Peay took the lead with six runs in the bottom of the inning before the Cougars tied the game in third inning. Aside from Weimer's home run, Justin Perkins added an RBI with a base hit.
Austin Peay regained the lead with a run in the bottom of the third before SIUE went on top 10-7 with four runs in the fourth. Weimer drove home a run with a sacrifice fly, Peyton Cordova-Smith doubled to bring in a run and Raul Elguezabal drove in a run with a triple. Elguezabal scored on a wild pitch.
"Offensively, we did a nice job getting out to the 4-0 lead and to be able to keep adding there for a few innings," Lyons said.
Austin Peay tied the game with three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and both teams held for several innings. The Govs scored three times in the seventh to take the lead for good. SIUE scored a run in the eighth, but didn't get any closer.
"They threw up a couple of zeroes in the middle innings and we just weren't able to get enough runs to win today," Lyons added.
Dustin Woodcock finished with three hits for the Cougars. Weimer, Elguezabal, Perkins and Rigoni had two hits each.
Four players had two hits apiece for Austin Peay, which finished with 13 hits as a team.
Tyler Hutchinson was charged with two runs in 1 1/3 innings in relief and took the loss to fall to 1-2. Greg Leban pitched the sixth and seventh innings scoreless for Austin Peay and improved to 3-0 with the win. Brett Newberg worked the eighth and ninth, allowing a run, to earn his sixth save of the year for Austin Peay.
SIUE plays a Tuesday contest at Saint Louis before playing host to Eastern Illinois at Simmons Complex for a three-game series beginning Friday.
"There's no time to feel sorry for yourself," Lyons said. "We have three OVC weekends to come and we have SLU on Tuesday. We need to come out ready to play Tuesday and then turn our attention to the weekend."
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