First-place Southeast baseball team picks up another conference win

After the series opener between Southeast Missouri State and SIU Edwardsville baseball teams, Southeast coach Steve Bieser elaborated on a few gambles he took throughout the game -- one that worked well and another that didn't go as hoped.

Luckily for the Redhawks, the one that worked well came in the bottom of the 10th inning and led to an 8-7 walk-off win against the Cougars Friday night at Capaha Field.

Southeast third baseman Andy Lennington led off the bottom of the inning with a base hit. He stole second and then advanced to third on a pitch in the dirt.

Lennington scored the winning run when pinch hitter Cole Ferguson knocked a 2-2 pitch to left field.

"That was an inning where we basically rolled the dice," Bieser said. "Rather than straight up sacrificing him over and count on two guys to get a hit, I wanted to give Lenny a chance to steal the base. To me, him stealing that base is the biggest part of that inning because if he doesn't get a good jump and steal that base then we're not in a situation with a runner at third and one out. He did a great job of stealing the base but not only that, he did a great job of moving up on a ball in the dirt to get to third base.

"That was kind of the difference in the game because when you get that infield drawn in, one out, runner at third it becomes much easier as a hitter because there's so many things that you can do to drive that run in. ... I really thought Lennington was basically the difference in that inning right there to give Cole Ferguson a shot to come up and be the hero."

Ferguson, who had only seen time in a couple of games since injuring his finger during the Redhawks' game against Saint Louis on March 18, was ready when the opportunity to pinch hit came late in the game.

"In that situation you're going to see a lot of offspeed, so I was kind of looking for a slider out over the plate," Ferguson said. "He threw me one real good one that I was way early on, but he ended up throwing me one that backed up on him a little bit and gave me an opportunity to hit it well."

"I'm just happy that we came out with a 'W,'" Ferguson added. "There was a lot of things that added up throughout that game to put me in that situation."

One of those moments that added up came in the top of the ninth inning.

Southeast Missouri State's Matt Tellor connects for a sacrifice fly driving in Scott Mitchell in the fifth inning of the Redhawks' 8-7 10-inning win over the SIU Edwardsville Cougars Friday, April 4, at Capaha Field. (Adam Vogler)

With two outs and runners on first and second, SIUE third baseman Jake Michalak singled to right field. Southeast right fielder Dalton Hewitt quickly fielded the ball and gunned down first baseman Alec Saikal at home plate to end the inning and prevent the go-ahead run from scoring.

"If you're looking back, Ferguson's hit is huge, but Dalton's play is bigger because without that throw that guy's going to score," Lennington said. "Huge play. Probably one of the biggest plays of the year for us, for sure. Especially with our outfield -- we don't have very many outfield assists, we don't throw very many guys out. That was a big play. Dalton made a perfect throw, Scott Mitchell stayed in there good and made the tag, and that's one of the biggest plays we've made all year."

That play kept the Redhawks from playing catch up in their half of the inning, which was something they had to do from the first inning of the game.

SIUE plated two runs in the first inning, and Southeast answered when Lennington hit a two-RBI single to left center.

The Cougars went ahead 3-2 in the second, but the Redhawks knotted it again in the third. Second baseman Jason Blum scored when first baseman Matt Tellor singled to shortstop Skyler Geissinger, who threw the ball away at first.

The Redhawks took their first lead of the game in the bottom of the fifth on a Tellor sacrifice fly that scored Mitchell.

They extended the lead in the sixth when designated hitter Ryan Barnes got a base hit to score Mitchell and move center fielder Cole Bieser to third.

John Logan Zink pinch ran for Barnes and he and Bieser successfully stole second and home to make it 6-3.

Zink advanced to third on a groundout and scored on a single to left field from Mitchell.

SIUE wasted little time in striking back. Starting pitcher Tyler Iago gave up hits to the first three batters in the seventh inning to cut the lead to 7-4.

Bieser brought Skylar Cobb in to pitch with two runners on and Cobb was able to get the Cougars to hit into two outs before going to a 3-2 count on Geissinger.

Southeast Missouri State shortstop Andy Lack connects to advance the base runner with a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning of the Redhawks' 8-7 10-inning win over the SIU Edwardsville Cougars Friday, April 4, at Capaha Field. (Adam Vogler)

Then the gamble that Bieser took that didn't work out quite as well happened. Greg Mosel inherited the bases loaded, two out situation with a full count and promptly walked on Geissinger on a pitch that was well wide of the plate.

"We got to the point there where I wanted a breaking pitch and Skylar's out there for however many pitches he'd thrown so far and he hadn't thrown, basically, a slider yet," Bieser said. "To ask him to throw it right there was kind of tough. Mosel, that's his pitch, so I just kind of thought that the matchup right there -- righty on righty with one of the best right-handed breaking balls in our league -- to go ahead and go after it right there because that was a huge point. We needed to get that out. We needed a strikeout right there or an out any way we could get it. And when we didn't that's where the inning kind of fell apart and allowed them to get back in the game. It's a little unconventional, I kind of rolled the dice there and it didn't work, but that's just the game. Sometimes you have a feeling of 'This is the right thing to do,' and it doesn't always work out."

Saikal, who went 4 for 4 on the day, came up next and sent a single into center field that scored two. Then designated hitter Keaton Wright made it 7-all with an RBI single to left field.

The Redhawks went down in order in the bottom of the inning, had a lead-off walk erased on a double play in the eighth and went down in order again before winning in the 10th. The win keeps them in first place in the Ohio Valley Conference, and they improved to 19-10 and 11-2 in conference.

SIUE fell to 10-17 and 8-5 in the OVC. The Cougars remain tied for third in the conference standings.

The Redhawks and Cougars face off in Game 2 of the series at 2 p.m. Saturday at Capaha Field. There will be a free tailgate with food and drinks provided by Jimmy John's and Kohlfeld Distributing.

"I think every one of our guys know we snuck one out tonight," Bieser said. "We got away with one that we didn't play as good as we could possibly play, but again that's the mark of a good team -- whenever they can win when we made a lot of mistakes. That's from coaching to on-field mistakes to a lot of different things that we didn't do the way that we work at it every single day in practice. We got away with one, and you've got to be happy with that and come back tomorrow and make sure that we clean those things up."