Baseball is back as Southeast Missouri State opens the season tonight searching for more success

If you walk past Capaha Field and catch a glimpse of a Southeast Missouri State baseball practice there might not be a raucous group out on the field.

Southeast coach Steve Bieser admits there are a few "out there" personalities that can get the occasional rise out of the group, but more than anything the players are focused on their work, with few distractions.

This year's squad, one that the fourth-year coach says is one of the most serious he's had, has high standards to live up to after the Redhawks have won back to back Ohio Valley Conference regular-season titles.

They will get the first chance to show off what they've worked so diligently on when they step onto the field at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, to open their season tonight at 6 p.m.

"Sometimes you wonder if they're having fun because they just go about their business," Bieser said. "You know they enjoy what they're doing because they continue to want more and want more, and they'll stay after practice and do stuff on their own. It's just a bunch of baseball guys. They want to be out on the field, playing as much as they can play, and they've been really good whether it's been in the weight room or out on the field."

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Steve Bieser.

That serious side led Bieser to adjust slightly.

The goal for each day -- practice and games -- remains for the team to be extremely sound in everything they do, with the understanding that physical mistakes will happen occasionally but that mental mistakes must be limited, if not eliminated. The next step that's new to this group -- and Bieser -- is a more conscious effort to have fun and play with great energy. "I think one of the things that I'd like to try to do with this club is just to have fun," Bieser said. "I mean, let them find their own identity, but have little celebrations when good things happen. I've always been the coach on the other end of it as, 'Act like you've been there before.' We don't want to rub it in. We don't need to, basically, be showboats or anything like that -- that's not what I want them to do. But I want them to have fun and want them to enjoy it. It seems like every club finds something. When you hit a double there's something that the guys do and it just happens, and I don't even know what's going to happen. They're going to find that themselves and ... rather than cut that out this year I kind of want to let those things happen, let them be themselves."

The Redhawks never celebrated on-field when they clinched of share of the OVC title last season and couldn't when they clinched it outright because it came with a Morehead State loss on the heels of Southeast's own loss.

"They're still going to be very courteous whether it's in victory or defeat," Bieser said. "They're that type of group that won't go overboard and make it look like we're better than what we are."

Southeast was picked as the favorites to win the conference championship again this season and received 19 of the 22 first-place votes in the preseason poll, which is voted on by the league's coaches and sports information directors.

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com Southeast Missouri State senior first baseman Ryan Rippee.

The Redhawks went 36-23 last season and were 22-8 in the conference. The year before that they posted a record of 37-20 and 23-7 in the OVC.

"That's kind of the goal of this team: can we be a little bit better in all phases than we were last year?" Bieser said. "I truly believe we can. It's just making sure we've got the right guys on the field at the right time and guys accepting and understanding their roles. That's always the toughest part whenever you have such great competition at each position like we do. I think this is the strongest bench that we've had since I've been here and it's going to be tough for some of those guys to adjust to being more of a role player than an everyday player."

The coach said this year's bench is the strongest he's had since he's been here, and there are 12-13 guys that are deserving of being in the starting lineup everyday.

Starting first baseman Ryan Rippee returns along with shortstop Branden Boggetto, both of whom were preseason All-OVC picks.

Trevor Ezell, a freshman All-American a year ago, will take over at second base, while senior Hunter Leeper will be the team's starting third baseman.

Catcher Scott Mitchell returns for his senior campaign and will share the load of time behind the plate with transfer Brian Lees.

Garrett Gandolfo, who was the designated hitter last year, will start out in left field while junior transfers Dan Holst and Daniel Costello will take over in center and right field, respectively.

"We've got a lot of competitors -- pitchers and position players-wise," pitcher Joey Lucchesi said. "I think we're going to be a really tough team to beat and I feel like we're going to do a lot of damage in the OVC."

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com Southeast Missouri State senior pitcher Joey Lucchesi.

Lucchesi, the team's ace and reigning OVC Pitcher of the Year, is back to lead the Southeast pitching staff. Junior transfers Clay Chandler and Robert Beltran will be the team's Saturday and Sunday starters as the season commences.

"I think this team's extremely talented," Rippee said. "I think this team has a lot of chances to do special things, maybe make some noise in a regional, hopefully."

The NCAA regional berth, by way of an OVC tournament title, is what has eluded the Redhawks each of their last two championship seasons.

Southeast received a first-round bye in both seasons as the No. 1 seed.

In 2014 the Redhawks won their first game before losing to Tennessee Tech and eventual tournament champion Jacksonville State.

Last season, Southeast dropped its first-round game to Belmont before fending off elimination with wins over Jacksonville State, Tennessee Tech and Belmont to move into the championship round. Second seed Morehead State defeated the Redhawks 16-3 to claim the tourney title and NCAA regional berth.

"I think the guys that were here last year used it as a big motivator for the offseason," Rippee said. "I know Boggetto was here for both of them; I was only here for one, but two years in a row to get there and come so close to moving on, definitely feels like we have some unfinished business."

Bieser and his team have talked about that goal, but he doesn't want his team to focus on the end of the year results.

Instead he wants his club to play each of its 56 regular-season games with the energy and excitement that will be present when the season starts today.

"And then once we get through those 56, that's when we're going to get to the tournament -- can we have that same excitement and enthusiasm? -- because the more we can play with that type of atmosphere, the more it makes the tournament more manageable," Bieser said. "Because again, when you hit the tournament it's like you're wanting to flip that switch on and play at a higher level and sometimes that takes you away from your game, so we've got to practice playing like that all year long and have that excitement, enthusiasm all 56 regular-season games and hopefully we can carry that into postseason play."

The Redhawks are the first program to win back-to-back regular-season titles outright since Austin Peay did so in 2003-04, and no team has won three straight regular-season titles since the league moved from divisional champions following the 1989 season.

Southeast's last OVC tournament championship and regional bid came in 2002.

"Of course we want to win the OVC again because we obviously want to be the best we can be, but [Bieser] wants us to go even further and break our barriers, and I want to break barriers," Lucchesi said. "I think this team can really do it. We have the tools and the players and the chemistry. I think we can really go really far. I believe in us."