Illinois State baseball team sweeps Southeast Missouri State

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team got its first reality check of the season in its weekend series against Illinois State.

The Redbirds completed a three-game sweep of the Redhawks with 8-3 and 6-5 victories at Cowboy Diamond on the campus of McNeese State in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on Saturday.

"We've just got to put this weekend series behind us, and if you go back and look we had the same situation last year when we went into Memphis and didn't play very well," Southeast coach Steve Bieser said. "That basically was the start of when we started to click on all cylinders. It's a wake up call for us. This weekend was a total wake up call. We really expected to go in and win this series and play good baseball. I believe that if we would've played good baseball we would've won the series, but we just didn't play like we're capable of playing. That sounds like a broken record. I know I've been saying that for seven games, but it's the truth."

Southeast (3-4) held a 3-0 lead going to the fifth inning in Game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader after homeruns by right fielder Dalton Hewitt and third baseman Andy Lennington.

ISU's Ryan Koziol hit a leadoff homerun, Paul DeJong hit a three-run homerun and Logan Leverett had an RBI triple off starter Travis Hayes to put the Redbirds ahead 5-3.

Hayes, who dropped to 1-1 with the loss, pitched a scoreless sixth and was relieved by Jacob Lawrence to start the seventh. Hayes allowed five earned runs on 11 hits and struck out six.

"Travis didn't have his best stuff," Bieser said. "He was lacking a little bit of his command and his breaking balls weren't sharp. But what he did do is he competed very well, and that's what good pitchers do. ... He kept us in the game and gave us a chance."

Lawrence gave up a two-run homer and an RBI double that extended the Redbirds' lead to 8-3.

The Redhawks didn't record a hit over the final four innings of the loss.

"Before we started the season it seemed like everybody was clicking, everybody was swinging the bats well," Bieser said. "As the season started we got a couple hot guys, and we've got some guys who are struggling to do too much damage. What we've got to do is just be able to get more consistent up and down the lineup. We've got some guys that are just kind of ice cold right now. We need those guys to get heated back up and work as an entire unit."

Southeast held a 1-0 lead in the first inning of Game 2 after first baseman Ryan Rippee singled home Lennington, who'd doubled.

A pair of singles, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly scored the tying run for the Redbirds in the top of the second, but the Redhawks regained the lead once more in their half of the third on a Lennington RBI double that made it 2-1.

The lead held up until the fifth when ISU's Brian Rodemoyer hit a solo shot off starter Ryan Lenaburg. The senior, who took the loss and dropped to 1-1, gave up another solo shot to DeJong and a three-run homer to Leverett in the sixth to make it 6-2 ISU.

Lenaburg was relieved without recording an out in the sixth, allowing six earned runs on seven hits in the loss.

"He just couldn't throw a breaking ball for strikes in tonight's game," Bieser said. "He had a good fastball, and he got away with it for awhile, but when you sit back and hitters can eliminate all your pitches except for your fastball, especially a team like Illinois State, who has some fastball hitters in the middle of their lineup, it's going to catch you and you're going to get hurt by it before too long."

The Redbirds (4-2) were held scoreless over the final three innings as Southeast chipped away at the lead.

Redhawks designated hitter Garrett Gandolfo tripled and scored on a fielding error in the seventh. Rippee led off the bottom of the eighth with a homer to left to cut it to 6-5.

Second baseman Jason Blum hit a two-out single in the bottom of the ninth before left fielder Trevor Ezell and Lennington drew walks to load the bases for Rippee.

Rippee singled to right, scoring Blum, but Ezell was called out at home to end the game.

"The team didn't quit," Bieser said. "They came back, and it was just a call away from tying the game up in the ninth. The call didn't go our way. It was just one of those general calls when the ball beats the guy, but there wasn't a tag applied, and that's just how it goes."

The Redhawks are scheduled to face Arkansas State in Jonesboro, Arkansas, on Wednesday.

"We definitely underperformed and didn't play the way I think our team's capable of," Bieser said. "That's something that we've got to take a step back and re-evaluate and see where we're at as a club and how we have to progress moving forward here. We just didn't play this series well from all three different standpoints -- we didn't play good defense, we didn't swing the bats real well and we didn't make timely pitches and didn't have a lot of consistent pitching."

Game 1

It took two innings for everything to unravel for Southeast in its series opener against ISU on Friday night.

The Redhawks had a three-run advantage following an impressive seven-inning performance on the mound from junior lefty Alex Winkelman, but a homerun in each of the last two innings for the Redbirds led to a 7-3 Southeast loss at McNeese State's Cowboy Diamond in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Southeast struck first on a leadoff homer by senior center fielder Brendon Neel to take a 1-0 lead in the third inning, but wasted an opportunity to extend the lead when the Redhawks stranded the bases loaded.

In the top of the seventh the bases were loaded with Redhawks after three straight hit batsman to start the inning. The next two batters reached on a fielder's choice with the lead runner being throw out at home each time, but senior third baseman Andy Lennington drove in a couple with a two-out single to center to give Southeast a 3-0 cushion after seven complete innings.

Junior pitcher Joey Lucchesi relieved Winkelman to start the eighth inning. Winkelman did not allow a run on five hits and two walks, and struck out a career-high nine batters, but ultimately was left with a no decision.

Lucchesi gave up a base hit, was credited with an error on a failed pickoff attempt at first and walked a batter before giving up a three-run home run to ISU's Jean Ramirez that knotted it at 3-3 in the eighth.

The Redhawks advanced oufielder Hunter Leeper to third in the bottom of the inning, but he was thrown out at home on a fielder's choice when the ball was hit to the first baseman.

Brady Wright took over on the mound for Southeast in the ninth, and was tagged with the loss.

After giving up a couple of one-out singles and walking a batter to load the bases, the junior righty gave up a grand slam to ISU's Logan Leverett for the final score.

Southeast, which stranded 12 runners in the game, mustered a two-out single and walk in the ninth, but nothing else as the Redhawks dropped to 3-2 on the season.