ST. LOUIS – Saint Louis scored a run in the bottom of the 10thinning to defeat SIUE baseball 5-4 Tuesday at the Billiken Sports Complex.
The Cougars fell to 9-20. SLU improved to 20-6.
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Zeus Ponder (2-2) pitched the last two-thirds of an inning and suffered the loss.
Saint Louis scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings after the Cougars took the lead in the top of the inning.
The Cougars trailed 3-1 before scoring three runs in the inning. Mack Mitchell led off with a double before Lucas Spence walked. Chase Bloomer drove home a run with a double and moved to second base on a wild pitch. A second consecutive wild pitch allowed Spence to score the game-tying run and Bloomer to move to third. Ethan Willoughby gave SIUE its first lead with a sacrifice fly on a foul ball down the right field line.
"Our guys competed all the way to the end," SIUE Head Coach Sean Lyons said. "We had some opportunities early that we didn't capitalize on. We did the job to come back, but we couldn't finish it out."
The Billikens got on the board with two hits in the first inning against SIUE starter Tyler DeLong. DeLong worked only the one inning. He struck out one.
The Cougars tied the score with a run in the second inning. Gage Franck and Sean Kang opened the inning with back-to-back singles. Franck went to third on a fielder's choice and scored on a sacrifice fly by Zack Floyd.
The Billikens loaded the bases on a hit and two walks in the fifth before scoring on a bases loaded walk. They added a second run on a sacrifice fly for the 3-1 lead.
Matthew Gist worked three scoreless innings out of the bullpen. He struck out four.
"He threw well today," Lyons said of Gist. "It was fun to watch him mixing speeds and working both sides of the plate."
Andrew Ressler added a scoreless inning of relief with a strikeout.
"Ressler had a good day," Lyons said. "It was important to get Gist and Ressler some work."
Saint Louis outhit SIUE 8-7. Kang was 2-4 at the plate to lead the Cougars.
"He is a good player," Lyons said of Kang. "He is playing well when he gets in there."
Spence was 1-4 with a run scored. He extended his team-leading hitting streak to 14 games, which is the longest active streak in the Ohio Valley Conference.
SIUE is scheduled to play host to Illinois State Wednesday at Roy E. Lee Field. First pitch was moved up to 4 p.m. because of forecasted cold temperatures.
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