Offense earns split

~ The Redhawks scored 25 runs against Eastern Kentucky.

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team bounced back from a crushing loss to salvage a split of Saturday's Ohio Valley Conference doubleheader.

Host Eastern Kentucky rallied from a 10-0 deficit to capture the nine-inning opener 14-13, but the Redhawks romped 12-2 in the seven-inning nightcap.

The squads close out their three-game series in Richmond, Ky., at noon today with a nine-inning contest.

Southeast (26-19, 12-7) remained in second place in the nine-team OVC with four league games remaining. The top two finishers earn a first-round bye for the OVC tournament.

"I give my club credit for bouncing back," Southeast coach Mark Hogan said. "That first game was one of the worst things I've seen. We just couldn't stop them at the end."

Senior left-hander James Leigh shut down EKU's strong offense in Saturday's nightcap and took advantage of a second straight outburst by Southeast's potent bats.

Leigh pitched Southeast's first complete game of the season and improved his record to 7-1. He allowed eight hits while striking out seven and walking three.

"James was very good," Hogan said. "He controlled a good hitting team."

In the opener, EKU trailed 10-0 after 3 1/2 innings, 11-5 after six innings and still found itself behind 13-10 entering the bottom of the ninth.

The Colonels (25-21, 8-11) stunned Southeast with a four-run rally off Southeast junior Jim Klocke, a catcher who doubles as the Redhawks' closer.

Jayson Langfels tied things with a three-run homer. After a one-out fly ball was lost in the sun and went for a double off the bat of Jacob Daniel, Michael Garcia delivered a walk-off double.

"It's too bad we got 20 hits and 13 runs and lost the game," Hogan said.

Four of EKU's 14 runs were unearned, thanks to a pair of Southeast errors.

Southeast came back with nine more hits and 12 more runs in the nightcap.

The offensive outburst featured six home runs, including one in each game from senior left fielder Justin Wheeler. He leads the Redhawks with 13 homers.

Also homering for Southeast were senior first baseman Matt Wagner (his 12th), senior right fielder Tyrell Cummings (eighth), Klocke (seventh) and freshman shortstop Kenton Parmley (third).

Klocke, Cummings and Parmley led Southeast's 29-hit attack with five hits apiece.

Klocke went 5-for-7 with two doubles in addition to his homer.

Cummings went 5-for-8. He also had two doubles along with his homer and drove in four runs.

Parmley went 5-for-9 with four RBIs, Wheeler went 4-for-9 and Wagner was 3-for-8 with five RBIs, all coming in the nightcap.

EKU also had a strong offensive day with 25 hits, including 17 in the opener.