EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – The NIU baseball team fell to SIU-Edwardsville Sunday afternoon by a score of 4-3 as the Cougars earned the four-game sweep over the weekend.
 
"This was a very tough weekend for us," Head Coach Mike Kunigonis said. "We were one play, one hit, one pitch away from being in a very different spot."
 
Donovin Sims got the start for the Huskies and threw six innings, giving up two runs on six hits with nine strikeouts and no walks.
 
"Donovin was very good today and he deserved better than what he got," Kunigonis said. "We need to keep grinding and keep fighting and find ways to win."
 
Sims was on the hook for the loss until NIU got back-to-back homers from Jacob Dunham and Roderick Bynum in the seventh inning to tie the score at 2-2. Dunham's ball went deep to center off the top of the fence and Bynum launched his ball over the wall in left, the first home runs of the season for each.
 
"We had some clutch hits when we needed them but unfortunately it wasn't enough today," Kunigonis said.
 
The Huskies took the lead in the top of the eighth when Brad Wood led of the inning by getting hit by a pitch. He got to second on a wild pitch, tagged up on a fly ball to left and made third then scored on a Joe Jumonville single up the middle to give NIU a 3-2 lead at the time.
 
SIUE got the lead back in the eighth off of Andrew Frankenreider as they got a walk, a hit by pitch, a double and a sacrifice fly to get back on top 4-3. They scored the first runs of the game in the fifth when the top of the Cougars' order recorded three-straight singles to drive in two runs.
 
"We will get back to work tomorrow and keep fighting to right the ship," Kunigonis said.
 
NIU will get back to the field on Tuesday for a midweek match-up against Iowa in Iowa City. After that they will head down south again to St. Louis next weekend for a three-game series.