It was a tough weekend for Lindenwood baseball (17-18, 6-5 OVC) as they dropped two of three games to the SIUE Cougars (15-19, 8-4 OVC) to fall to fifth place in the Ohio Valley Conference standings.
Game 1:
Game one of the series on Thursday was a pitchers duel that lasted 14 innings with SIUE coming out victorious 3-1 in the affair.
Lindenwood found themselves down 1-0 in the bottom of the sixth when Jake Radosevich whacked a 1-1 pitch deep into left center field and over the wall for his eighth homer of the season, tying the game at 1-1.
Ethan Smith twirled a gem of a game for the Lions getting the starting nod in the opening game of the series going 6.2 innings allowing only one run on four hits, walking two and striking out four before giving way to the bullpen.
Bennett Stice and Easton Rakers would combine to pitch 6.1 innings of relief only allowing one hit and striking out five combined to keep the game tied.
Tim Texeira was equally brilliant for SIUE tossing 7.0 innings of one run ball on only two hits and three walks with two k’s as the freshman ended up with a no decision.
The Cougars would finally break the scoreless tie in the 14th off Michael Walsh as Joshua Heyder led off the inning with a double and would come around to score on a Lane Crowden RBI single up the middle. SIUE would tack on an insurance run on a suicide squeeze play by John Stallcup scoring Kyle Ratliff and Tyler Davis would slam the door in the bottom of the inning picking up his fourth save of the season.
Game 2:
Lindenwood evened the series in game two riding yet another complete game shutout from Josh Newell.
Newell looked like prime Greg Maddux on the bump delivering a 9 inning performance only giving up four hits, walking one and striking out seven en route to his sixth victory on the season. Newell has now only given up three runs in his last 31.0 innings pitched en route to a 3-0 record over his last four starts and having thrown two complete game shutouts this season.
After being quieted in game one the Lions offense exploded for seven runs on nine hits in game two. Kam Edwards was the star at the plate going 3/5 and collecting two RBIs. Radosevich and Evan Funkhouser also drove in a pair of runs in the win.
Edwards got the scoring started in the second, ripping an 0-1 pitch into right field plating Tyler Thompson to give the Lions an early 1-0 lead. Charlie Isom-McCall would hit a sac fly to right scoring a second run to double Lindenwood’s lead.
In the fourth it would again be Edwards to get the scoring started, scorching another base hit to right this time scoring Mitch Cummins before Radosevich would step up and clobber a 2-2 fastball down the right field line plating two more, growing the lead to 5-0.
Funkhouser would wait until after the seventh inning stretch to extend the lead once more as he turned on an 0-1 pitch down the left field line into the corner plating Thompson and Sam Grunberg to put Lindenwood up 7-0 and letting Newell close it out.
Game 3:
In the rubber match of this big cat affair it would SIUE coming out on top holding off a late rally by the Lions for a 7-6 win and a series win.
Eli Brown got tagged with the loss, his fifth, as he hurled 5.2 innings giving up four runs on eight hits while striking out a pair. Zach Buschschulte would pitch the final 3.1 innings of relief giving up three runs, one earned, on one hit, walking two and striking out one.
Lindenwood couldn’t touch Cougar starter Spencer Stearns who went 6.0 innings giving up five hits and striking out nine Lions en route to the win, his third of the season.
Lindenwood found themselves down 5-0 before they plated their first run in the bottom of the eighth on a Grunberg RBI knock. SIUE would respond with a pair of runs in the top of the ninth as Heyder would score two on an error by Lions right fielder, Tanner Simpson, with two outs.
But, like much of what the Lions have done all season, the offense came to life in the bottom of the ninth and looked poised for a comeback.
With two outs, Lindenwood loaded the bases on three walks from Cummins, Edwards and Isom-McCall before Radosevich stepped to the plate and absolutely tattooed the first pitch he saw deep into the right center gap driving in all three runs and cutting the lead to 7-4. Simpson would try to make up for his error by connecting for an RBI single before advancing to second on a passed ball and scoring on a Grunberg knock putting the Lions within one at 7-6. Tyler Thompson would step up to the plate with a chance to tie the game but would get tied up with a 1-1 breaking ball and groundout weakly to first to end the game.
The Lions will be back on the road this week first with a midweek game against Saint Louis University on Tuesday April 15 before taking I-55 south for a three game weekend series against rival SEMO April 17-19.
