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SIU Edwardsville Cougars baseball

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Location
  
Edwardsville, IL

Nickname
  
Cougars

Founded
  
1968

Head coach
  
Sean Lyons (1st year)

Colors
  
Red and White

Conference
  
Ohio Valley Conference


University
  
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Home stadium
  
Roy E. Lee Fieldat Simmons Baseball Complex(Capacity: 1,500)

The SIU Edwardsville Cougars baseball team represents Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in NCAA Division I college baseball. They compete as members of the Ohio Valley Conference. SIUE plays its home games at Roy E. Lee Field at Simmons Baseball Complex, located in the northwest corner of the campus.

Contents

History

The Cougars baseball program was started in 1967–68 by Roy Lee, who headed it for its first eleven years. In that time, his teams built a record of 237–144–3, going to 8 consecutive NCAA Division II playoffs and 3 Division II College World Series, with a runner-up finish in 1976.

After Coach Lee's retirement, the program was led for 34 years by SIUE alumnus Gary Collins. Collins' teams won 1028 games (with 766 loses & 7 ties). While still in Division II, his teams made 14 NCAA appearances and went to the Division II College World Series 5 times. He led them into Division I and the Ohio Valley Conference, where the Cougars completed their first season in the OVC in 2012 with an overall record of 27–28 and a conference record of 13–14, which tied for fifth place in the ten-team league.

In 2012, Gary Collins moved from coaching to become SIUE's first Director of Development for Intercollegiate Athletics.

With Collins' job change, after thirteen seasons as Collins' assistant, SIUE alumnus Tony Stoecklin was named acting head coach for 2013 and continued as head coach from 2014.

The 2014 squad became the first to qualify for the OVC Baseball Tournament, earning the #4 seed in the six team field.

Stoecklin was reassigned within the athletic department in mid-April 2016, with assistant Danny Jackson named as interim coach and a national search for a new coach to be launched after the season.

On June 24, 2016, Sean Lyons, the associate head coach at Bradley, was named the fourth head coach in Cougars' history.

Notable former players

Through the years, many Cougars have gone on to play professionally, and twenty-one have been named All-Americans for their play at SIUE.

  • The most successful professional baseball player out of SIUE was John "Champ" Summers who played only one season for the Cougars before signing a pro contract after being seen by a major league scout while playing softball. Summers played for six teams during an eleven-year Major League career.
  • Clay Zavada has pitched in the majors for the Arizona Diamondbacks, but is possibly better known for his award-winning mustache.
  • Over the years, more than fifty former Cougars have played baseball in the major and minor leagues, but most have gone on to careers in other fields.

    • References

    SIU Edwardsville Cougars baseball Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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