EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The visiting SIUE baseball team erupted for 10 runs in the final three innings on Tuesday night to secure a 14-6 victory over the University of Evansville Purple Aces at German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium in Evansville.
The Cougars scored two unearned runs in the seventh inning to grab a one-run lead, before scoring three runs in the eighth inning and five more in the ninth inning to blow things open. Outfielder Lucas Spence led the way for SIUE, going 4-for-6 with a triple, four runs scored and four RBI. All four RBI, three of his hits and three of his runs came in the final three innings of the game.
SIUE struck first in the third inning on a solo home run by second baseman Mack Mitchell and the first run of the game by Spence, who singled and eventually scored on a wild pitch.
The score would remain 2-0 in favor of SIUE until the fourth inning, when UE graduate designated hitter Chase Hug launched a three-run home run to right field to give UE a 3-2 lead.
The Cougars would tie the game at 3-3 in the fifth inning, before UE opened up a 5-3 lead with two runs in the bottom half of the frame. Graduate third baseman Brent Widder roped his second double of the game to score the inning’s first run, before junior outfielder Harrison Taubert came through with an RBI ground out to give UE a 5-3 lead.
SIUE scored a run in the sixth inning to trim the UE lead to 5-4, before taking the lead with two unearned runs in the seventh inning. Spence started the rally with a one-out single. Then, after a strikeout and a hit-by-pitch put runners on first and second, Spence raced home on a fielding error to tie the game and a throwing error put two men in scoring position with two outs. Then, a controversial balk call on a 3-2 count brought in the go-ahead run for SIUE and gave the Cougars a 6-5 lead. Spence then broke things open in the eighth inning with a two-run triple as SIUE went on to win.
Spence and first baseman Ryan Niedzwiedz both had four hits and four RBI each to lead SIUE. Hug drove in three runs for UE, while Widder and senior first baseman Kip Fougerousse had two hits each. For Widder, it came in his 200th career collegiate game.
With the victory, SIUE improves to 8-17 overall. Evansville, meanwhile, falls to 9-15 overall with the loss. Evansville will return to action next on Thursday night, as the Purple Aces will host Southern Illinois in a three-game Missouri Valley Conference series. First-pitch is set for 6 p.m. and Thursday’s game can be heard live on 107.1 FM-WJPS and seen live on ESPN+.
