Lucchesi repeats, Bieser gets nod on lucrative OVC awards night for Southeast Missouri State baseball

For Southeast Missouri State senior Joey Lucchesi, his selection as the Ohio Valley Conference's Pitcher of the Year was just some extra reassurance that the effort he put in was worth it.

Bestowed with the honor during the league's banquet on Tuesday night in Jackson, Tennessee, the lefty became the first to repeat as OVC Pitcher of the Year since the inception of the award in 1992.

"It lets me know that my hard work has paid off and that I'm doing something right," Lucchesi said. "I'm going to keep continuing to work hard because it's a lot of success and positivity. Of course I love the trophies, but we've still got to win the tournament now."

Southeast Missouri State coach Steve Bieser watches a game from the dugout earlier this season at Capaha Field. Bieser led the Redhawks to their third consectuive OVC regular-season title this year.

Southeast fourth-year coach Steve Bieser was named the league's Coach of the Year for the second time after leading the Redhawks to their third consecutive OVC regular-season title.

Senior shorstop Branden Boggetto, senior designated hitter Garrett Gandolfo, junior outfielder Chris Osborne and junior starting pitcher Robert Beltran joined Lucchesi as first-team all-conference selections.

Sophomore second baseman Trevor Ezell and junior starting pitcher Clay Chandler were named second-team all-OVC.

Eastern Kentucky's Mandy Alvarez and Tennessee Tech's Kevin Strohschein shared OVC Player of the Year honors while Strohschein was picked as the OVC Rookie of the Year.

"This was a huge night for us," Bieser said. "Definitely the most decorated that we've been since I've been here, as a team. To have five first-teamers and a couple second-teamers and Pitcher of the Year, it's been an excellent night for us for sure."

Lucchesi posted a 9-4 record during the regular-season and leads the OVC with a 2.11 ERA. He leads the nation with 136 strikeouts, which broke the conference and Southeast single-season strikeout records. He tied school's single-game strikeout record with 17 against Murray State on April 28.

He's limited opponents to a .227 batting average and allowed only 14 extra base hits in 14 starts.

Lucchesi was named to the Golden Spikes Award watch list and National College Baseball Hall of Fame's Diamond National Player of the Year watch list earlier this season.

The Redhawks have now had the OVC Pitcher of the Year each of the last three seasons. Travis Hayes was OVC Co-Pitcher of the Year in 2014.

"The impressive part of that is it's just so hard to repeat something when you're really good at something like he was and everybody in the league knew that he was the top pitcher last year," Bieser said. "To be able to come back and repeat and really be just even a little bit better than what he was last year, that's saying a lot.

"I didn't realize that it's the first time it's ever be done. With what Coach [Lance] Rhodes has been doing here with his pitching staff, I guess we take it for granted that he's going to produce a Pitcher of the Year every single year with the way things are going for him."

Boggetto, a four-year starter who was second-team all-OVC last year, is hitting .344 this season and leads the Redhawks with 55 RBIs and 218 at bats. He's started every game at short this season and is tied for the team lead in hits (75), doubles (17), triples (3) and multi-RBI games (14). He ranks second with 58 runs scored and 113 total bases.

He's earned CoSIDA Academic All-District honors and was named to the Brooks Wallace Award watch list for the top shortstop in college baseball.

Gandolfo, a second-team performer last year, ranks second on the team with a .359 batting average. He's started all 53 games, leads the team in total bases (123) and is tied for the team lead in doubles (17) and multi-RBI games (14). He's recorded 54 RBIs (39 in conference), two triples and hit nine home runs.

Osborne's blasted a team-best 15 homers, which is tied for second in the conference. He leads all of Division I with an .803 slugging percentage.

Osborne, who's started 33 games, is hitting .378 with an on-base percentage of .472 to lead the Redhawks.

Beltran, a left-handed pitcher, is 8-1 on the season as the Redhawks' Sunday starter. He's posted a 3.95 ERA with 74 strikeouts in his first season at Southeast.

Ezell, the Redhawks' leadoff hitter who has started at second base in all but one game, ranks ninth in the nation with 61 runs and 17th in walks with 47. He has a 23-game on-base streak, leads Southeast with 22 multi-hit games and ranks third in the conference in stolen bases with 20. He is also a CoSIDA Acadmic All-District honoree.

The right-handed Chandler is 4-4 on the season with a 3.84 ERA as Southeast's Saturday starter. He's recorded 91 strikeouts and issued just 17 walks for a league-best strike-to-walk ratio of 5.35.

"I'm really happy for all my other teammates who got awards as well tonight," Lucchesi said. "I think that we all have been working hard. Really happy for my team and my coaches and I'm super excited right now. I hope the positivity carries into the tournament."

The top-seeded Redhawks, who open the tournament at 7 p.m. Thursday, achieved something that no other team had since the conference went away from divisional play in 1989 by winning three consecutive OVC championships outright.

Bieser, who led the team to a 35-18 overall and 22-8 conference record this year, is one of 15 coaches to be named OVC Coach of the Year more than once. He also won it after his first championship season in 2014.

"You've got a great staff, there's so much input from so many people in the program; you've got excellent players that buy into the coaching philosophy and everything you're trying to give them they carry out the plan every single day and they're working hard to accomplish," Bieser said. "One guy gets recognized but there's so much that goes into having a successful organization. So many people have contributed. Obviously I got named the Coach of the Year but I know there's a lot of input and just a lot of support. There's support from my family and from this coaching staff and just from everybody that I've been around in the game. It's definitely an honor and I'm very humbled by it."