Friday wins kept Southeast Missouri State baseball team's hopes alive

JACKSON, Tenn. -- The Southeast Missouri State baseball team used a power-packed offense and gritty starting pitching to stave off elimination Friday at the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

Second-seeded Southeast rebounded from Thursday's opening loss to Jacksonville State by rolling past sixth-seeded Tennessee-Martin 12-7 and fourth-seeded Tennessee Tech 6-1.

"It was just a great day for us," Southeast coach Mark Hogan said.

Southeast had 21 hits Friday, including five home runs and nine doubles.

"We came out today hitting like we knew we were going to," said senior first baseman Casey Jones, who had two homers and six RBIs against UTM.

Southeast's attack was plenty for seniors Jon Dicus and Brad LaBruyere, who combined to throw 17 2/3 innings and 304 pitches to give a major lift to a Southeast staff that was trying to save as many arms as possible.

"Both guys were as good as they've been all year," Hogan said.

Southeast 12, UTM 7

Jones' two-run shot in the second inning got the Redhawks on the board after UTM scored a pair of first-inning runs. His grand slam highlighted an eight-run fourth inning that broke a 3-3 tie.

"I was seeing the ball really well," said Jones, who had just three homers all season before Friday.

Dicus pitched the first nine-inning complete game of his two-year Southeast career, allowing 10 hits and four earned runs. He struck out two and walked three.

Dicus (6-4), a senior, notched his second career complete game, both in his last three starts. He threw 145 pitches.

"I knew I had to do something like that. We had to save our pitching," Dicus said.

UTM, which notched its first-ever OVC tournament win a day earlier, got a solid relief outing from Notre Dame Regional High School graduate Colton Young.

Young, a freshman from Sikeston, Mo., allowed three runs and three hits over the final 5 2/3 innings. He previously had thrown just 18 innings this season.

Southeast 6, Tech 1

LaBruyere, a Central High School graduate, picked up where Dicus left off earlier in the day. And then some.

LaBruyere (9-2) scattered 12 hits, struck out nine and walked two to tie for the conference lead in wins.

LaBruyere, who never had pitched more than 6 1/3 innings in an outing, carried a shutout into the ninth. That was broken up and LaBruyere was relieved after throwing 159 pitches, one off the OVC tournament record. Senior Trent Wise recorded the final out.

"Before we went out there, we knew we would go as long as we could to save the bullpen," LaBruyere said.

Hogan marveled at LaBruyere's performance.

"It's the best I've ever seen him pitch," Hogan said. "He had devastating stuff with good movement. He's not really a strikeout pitcher. To get nine strikeouts, that says a lot about his stuff."

Although Southeast's defense was shaky in the first three tournament games with eight errors, the unit came up big on consecutive plays in the fifth inning.

Tech, which trailed 4-0, had runners on first and second with one out. Senior center fielder Blake Slattery made a nice sliding catch and senior right fielder Nick Harris followed with a spectacular catch near the wall on a ball that looked like it would get over his head.

"That helped me out a lot," LaBruyere said about the two gems.

Senior catcher Ky Burgess and senior second baseman Tim Rupp both had two-run homers.

Burgess capped a four-run fourth inning with his blast. Rupp's sixth-inning shot put the Redhawks up 6-0. Rupp had two of Southeast's 10 hits.