By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – The Tennessee Tech baseball team dropped a 9-2 decision to Ohio Valley Conference rival SIUE in the second game of the weekend series between the two league foes Saturday afternoon at Roy E. Lee Field at the Simmons Baseball Complex.
The Cougars (19-30-1, 11-12) took advantage of four defensive miscues by the Golden Eagles (29-21, 13-10) on the day and made enough contact to secure 12 hits while limiting the purple and gold to just six of its own.
In the first, SIUE was quick to get on the scoreboard with a 1-0 lead and held it until the third. Tech gathered its first marker of the day behind a sacrifice fly ball by second baseman Troy Baunsgard to center field.
A direct response from the Cougars in the bottom half provided a 2-1 lead again, but the Cookeville crew battled back on more time. In the fourth, designated hitter Mack Whitcomb piped an RBI single up the middle, evening things at 2-2.
SIUE went to work in the sixth, scoring four times amid two Golden Eagle errors. The home squad added two more to the collection in the seventh after another two Tech mistakes on defense, pushing the lead out to 8-2. The Cougars added one more run in the eighth for the final score.
Six different Tech batters combined for the team's six hits on the day. Starter Peyton Calitri took just his second loss of the season, yielding five earned runs on nine hits over 5.1 innings of work.
The rubber game of the series is scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. CT first pitch Sunday afternoon in Edwardsville.
File photo by Jim Dillon
