Ninth-inning run thwarts Southeast Missouri State baseball team in loss against Central Arkansas

Southeast Missouri State right-handed pitcher Clay Chandler was a little tired, a little amped up and a little bummed out following Saturday's game against Central Arkansas.

The junior transfer from Wabash Valley had just finished pitching eight spectacular innings, but the Redhawks came out of the pitchers' duel with a 1-0 loss at Capaha Field, which led to the mixed emotions for Chandler.

He didn't allow a run or walk a batter, gave up just two hits and struck out 14 before exiting a scoreless tie.

"Honestly, almost everything," Chandler said about what worked for him in his third start at Southeast. "My slider was really working -- I had really good bite on it. My changeup was able to keep the lefties off-balance. When you're facing right-handed, left-handed, right-handed in the box here you need that third pitch to be able to go longer in the game, and I was able to throw strikes, stay ahead in the count and so I could use the offspeed whenever I wanted to."

Chandler was perfect through four innings. He struck out eight in a row in a stretch spanning from the final out of the first to the first of the fourth before UCA attempted a bunt to snap the string of strikeouts.

The Bears' first hit came in the top of the fifth when third baseman Logan Preston led off with a single. Chandler didn't allow another base runner until hitting first baseman Matt Anderson with a pitch to start the eighth, which was erased when second baseman Trevor Ezell scooped a ball from catcher Brian Lees to catch Anderson stealing.

Designated hitter Hunter strong got a two-out base hit up the middle, but Chandler's 14th strikeout stranded him.

"He was really dominant early on, and really he was dominant for eight innings. I shouldn't even say early on," Southeast coach Steve Bieser said. "He had a string there where it was almost laughable at the way he was just throwing the ball exactly where he wanted and throwing every pitch for a strike. But that's Clay Chandler when he's on. He can pitch like that. We got to see the best of him today."

The Redhawks, who stranded eight base runners in the game, had one of their best scoring opportunities in the bottom of the eighth.

Leadoff hitter Daniel Costello hit a one-out single to left. Second baseman Trevor Ezell followed with a base hit to left, and center fielder Dan Holst got one to drop for a hit in front of the right fielder to load the bases with one out.

No. 4 hitter Branden Boggetto fouled out to first, and Garrett Gandolfo flied out to left to strand all three.

"When you don't get a lot of baserunners you've got to be able to come up with a big hit and score one of those runs and give your pitcher some support there," Bieser said. "We had the right guys in the eighth inning when we had them all loaded. We had the right guys at the plate and we just didn't come up with that hit. I mean, with Boggetto we were just hoping he could get an elevated ball and get it out into the outfield where we can have a sac fly or something right there. The pitcher made a good pitch, and he wasn't able to get it deep enough for us to score a run. But his swing was right. He was trying to get it in the air, and it was just a well-located pitch that he didn't get out in the outfield."

RHP Justin Murphy came in to pitch the ninth after picking up a save in two innings of work Friday night.

Leadoff batter Tyler Langley worked a full count before hitting one to left field. He beat out Gandolfo's throw to second for the Bears' only double of the game.

"He threw six strikes to the one guy that ended up getting a hit," Bieser said. "A couple of them I didn't feel like we got a call. It made it tough because when you throw that many strikes to one guy, eventually they're going to get you. Â… Our mistake was allowing him to get a double out of that and then that kind of put us behind the 8-ball there."

Right fielder Ty Tice followed with a single to center that drove Langley in for the game-winning run.

"I thought we were deep enough. We weren't going to let anything over our head, but I thought our angle was a little rounded to that ball," Bieser said of the double. "Knowing that that guy is their leadoff hitter who runs really well, we've got to take a more direct angle, get to the ball quick. The outfield's soft and it's checking up, so we didn't have to take a deeper angle there. If we could've got to it quick and maybe been able to stop him from trying to attempt that.

"But Garrett throws really well, and I thought if he would've got a direct angle to the ball and cut it off and made a throw, then we had a chance to throw him out. But it takes a good play, a really good play, in that situation."

UCA freshman Cody Davenport got the complete-game victory to improve to 2-0 on the season.

He allowed seven hits, walked one batter and struck out nine.

"He threw from two different arm angles, which is a little difficult for our hitters to settle in," Bieser said. "He threw from over the top, then he'd drop down three-quarters and throw both the four-seamer and two-seam fastball. He just attacked the zone really well, and I don't think we were aggressive enough with our approach with him. Then he would throw a slider and a changeup and was able to throw those in good locations most of the time, so that's what kept him really solid throughout the entire game."

Southeast advanced a runner to second in the third, fifth and seventh innings and got Ezell to third after a single, groundout and stolen base in the sixth, but a called third strike on Boggetto stranded him.

"I hope they take the message that I gave them after the game. When we have runners in scoring position, we have to get more aggressive," Bieser said. "We can't go down in the count 0-1 with them throwing a first-pitch fastball to us, especially if it's a fastball in the zone that we're looking. I thought that we let some good pitches go by with runners in scoring position today. The guys that were aggressive, they were the guys that got some hits."

Southeast (5-5) and UCA (6-5) face off in the series finale at 1 p.m. today.