Former Cape Central standout Scott leads Murray State baseball over Southeast Missouri State, 4-3

It's safe to say Murray State first baseman Ramsey Scott feels right at home at Capaha Field.

The Cape Central graduate, who entered the Racers' weekend series vs. the Ohio Valley Conference-leading Southeast Missouri State baseball team 2-for-28 in his last seven games, followed up a 2-for-4 performance Friday by going 2-for-4.

He blasted a three-run home run and had a single that set up the Racers' winning run in their 4-3 victory over the Redhawks to even the series on Saturday evening.

"Oh, I love this ballpark," said Scott, whose 52 RBIs are most of an OVC player. "I played here all my life -- from Legion ball and travel ball, a couple high school games. It's always a great atmosphere here. SEMO does a great job of that, bringing in fans. It's a great place to play."

Scott brought in some of his own fans for the three-game series, and they contributed to the atmosphere at the ballpark.

"You can hear them," he said with a grin.

Scott put MSU ahead for good in the top of the first. Aaron Bence led off with a double to left and Tyler Lawrence drew a one-out walk before Scott blasted his team-leading 10th home run of the season, an 0-1 pitch to center off lefty Clay Chandler.

"First pitch he threw me a changeup, it was middle-in -- swung over it and saw the spin of it," Scott said. "He threw me a fastball middle-in the very next pitch and I capitalized on it. I didn't miss it."

The Redhawks cut the deficit to one in the home half. Trevor Ezell drew a leadoff walk then Branden Boggetto singled up the middle and Garrett Gandolfo walked to load the bases with one out.

Chris Osborne sent a flare into left for a two-out, two-run single that made it 3-2 MSU.

MSU got one back in the third. Lawrence, whose 50 RBIs rank second in the conference, drew his second of three walks in the game. Scott followed with a two-out single to right and designated hitter Jack Hranec delivered the RBI single through the right to give the Racers a 4-2 advantage.

"He's got to come out and be better in the first inning. I thought he came out flat," Bieser said of Chandler. "The walk to Lawrence in the first inning to give Scott a chance and do the damage, and Scott's been swinging the bat really well...We walked Lawrence twice and we got hurt in both of those innings that we did that."

Southeast responded with a run in the bottom of the third. Chris Caffrey reached with one out when the shortstop deflected the ball into the outfield for an error. Osborne followed with a double and Hunter Leeper came through with the RBI groundout that pulled the Redhawks within 4-3, but neither team put together much more offense over the final six innings.

MSU got two runners on in the top of the fourth when Reed Thompson hit a one-out single and Jaron Robinson reached on an error when center fielder Dan Holst ran into shallow center and dropped a pop-up that shortstop Branden Boggetto was already prepared to make a play on.

The Redhawks turned a 5-4-3 double play to end the threat.

Then, in the sixth, Gandolfo lost track of a fly ball in left that allowed Hranec to reach with a leadoff single. Holst made a critical over-the-shoulder catch in deep center on the next at-bat to save a run. Chandler gave up another single to put two on, but got out of his final inning unscathed. He dropped to 4-2 with the loss, allowing four earned runs on seven hits with two walks and six strikeouts in six innings.

"Bogey's camped under that ball and he's got to back off of that when our infielder's standing there waving his arms," Bieser said of the defensive miscues. "We lost another ball in the lights. The other teams aren't losing the ball in the lights. We've got to do a better job; we cannot let balls drop like that. We worked around that, but those are crucial in tight games and we've got to be better defensively than that."

The Redhawks mustered just two hits over the final six shutout frames. Both came with two outs in the bottom of the fifth.

Caffrey reached on an infield single and Osborne singled up the middle before a balk moved them into scoring position. Starter Ryan Dills recorded his sixth strikeout to strand them. He improved to 3-3, allowed three runs (two earned) on seven hits in five innings. He walked a pair.

The Redhawks would strike out six more times off reliever Andrew Bramley, who allowed just two base runners via walk in his four hitless innings en route to his first save of the season.

"That's a tough loss," Bieser said. "To come into the game and you're swinging the bats well, to be totally shut down by their pitching staff is really the way that I look at this. They came in and they threw the ball really well and shut us down after that first inning. The reliever, Bramley came in and we didn't muster anything off of him, and that's the most frustrating part about the game is never putting him in any situation to give him any type of trouble whatsoever."

Boggetto drew a one-out walk on Bramley in the seventh, but Gandolfo, whose hitting streak came to an end at 21 games, grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Ezell walked with two outs in the ninth, but Bramley fanned Holst to secure the Racers' win.

"It's just up to us to get in there and see what it's really like and make adjustments when we need to," Holst said, "and we weren't able to make enough of those tonight."

Adam Pennington pitched three scoreless, hitless innings of relief for the Redhawks. He walked one, hit two and struck out one.

The Redhawks dropped to 30-12 and 19-4 in the OVC while MSU, which is fighting for a spot in the six-team OVC tournament, improved to 22-22 and 10-10 in conference.

"That's a big win for us," Scott said. "We've been turning things around as a program and this season, so coming in here and taking one is pretty big."

The series finale is set for 1 p.m. Saturday.

"You can't sleep on anybody," Holst said. "Every day's a new day. It doesn't matter how much you beat an opponent by the day before or how much you lose by, the next day you've got to come out ready to play and even then you still might not win but you've got to give yourself the best chance."