Cougars down Aces for first win

EDWARDSVILLE – SIUE baseball earned its first win of the season Wednesday, defeating Evansville 11-10 at Simmons Baseball Complex.

SIUE improved to 1-12, while Evansville dropped to 8-9.

 "We had a lot of fight today," SIUE Head Coach Tony Stoecklin said. "We're going to show a lot of that from here on out."

After tying the game in the seventh inning with a pair of groundouts, SIUE trailed 8-7 going to the bottom of the eighth. Dustin Woodcock led off the inning with a single and Jacob Stewart walked Jackson Layton moved both runners with a sacrifice bunt and Aaron Jackson tied the game with a groundout to second base. Brock Weimer followed with a two-out single to left center to put SIUE on top for the first time in the game, 9-8.

"We're a young team and we have a lot of newcomers," Stoecklin continued. "We're trying to put it all together. The talent is there. We're trying to figure out how to come together as team and win together as a team. Tonight we showed we could do it."

Evansville tied the game in the eighth inning on a home run from Eric McKibban, before the Cougars took the lead again in the bottom of the inning. Logan Andersen and Keaton Wright singled to start the inning before Woodcock hit a fly ball to deep center which bounced over the fence for a double to make it 10-9. Jackson walked with the bases loaded, forcing in a run to make it 11-9.

Zach Malach allowed a leadoff-home run in the ninth before striking out the side in order to earn his first save of the year.

Overall, the Cougars overcame six home runs from the Purple Aces, who got out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.

"We limited most of those home runs to solo shots," Stoecklin said. "On a day like today you're going to give up home runs. The key is to play good defense and not walk guys and make them swing the bat."

Evansville took advantage of windy conditions and scored seven of its 10 runs via the home run. Five different players went deep including Jyawook, who hit a pair of solo home runs.

He finished the night 4 for 5. McKibban was 3 for 5 with two RBIs.

Freshman left-hander Brandon Tatum (1-0) earned his first win, tossing an inning in relief. He allowed a run, on a home run, and struck out one. Ryan Agnitsch allowed a run, on a home run, over two innings of work. D.J. Hickey also allowed a run, on a home run, in an inning of work. Brendan Miller threw two scoreless innings, striking out one.

Michael Shereyk started and allowed six runs in two innings.  

"It doesn't reflect in the box scores with the runs we gave up, but overall our pitchers pitched well," Stoecklin said. "It wasn't an easy day to pitch."

Woodcock and Alec Skender each had three hits. Skender drove in a pair of runs. Andersen, Wright and Jacob Stewart all add two hits. Stewart drove in two runs with a double to the wall in left field.

The Cougars 11 runs and 14 hits were each season-highs.

"Woodcock's at-bat was huge and Brock Weimer's at-bat was huge," Stoecklin said.

Weimer was 1 for 3 with the RBI-single, two walks and two runs scored. He also threw out of pair of would-be base stealers.

"He played great defense tonight," Stoecklin said of Weimer. "Even though he hasn't swung the bat the way he's wanted to so far this year, he has made great contributions to the team just by what he's doing behind the plate. He has played fabulous defense."

SIUE resumes Ohio Valley Conference play with a three-game series at Murray State beginning Friday.

"We want to build on this," Stoecklin said. "We want the guys to understand they are pretty good. We want to take that into this weekend and keep rolling."