Offense secures series split for Southeast baseball

Southeast Missouri State and Central Arkansas hooked up in a down-to-the-wire baseball game for the second consecutive day.

This time the Redhawks came out on top to secure a split of the nonconference series.

Southeast's offense continued to sizzle with 17 hits and three home runs as the Redhawks held off the host Bears 13-11 on Wednesday in Conway, Ark.

The Redhawks, who dropped Tuesday's series opener 8-7, improved to 26-15 as they matched their victory total from each of the past two seasons. UCA fell to 13-28.

Southeast coach Mark Hogan notched his 850th career win. Hogan is 850-645-3 in 29 seasons, which includes stints in junior college, Division II and at Division I Southeast. He is 465-388-1 in his 16th season with the Redhawks.

The Redhawks improved their batting average, which ranks fourth nationally, by a point for the second day in a row as they are now at .359.

Junior center fielder Blake Slattery led Wednesday's attack by going 3 for 5, including his sixth home run of the season. The Central High School graduate drove in two runs and scored twice.

Sophomore shortstop Kenton Parmley, senior catcher Jim Klocke, junior third baseman Casey Jones, junior right fielder Louie Haseltine, junior first baseman Brett Russell and junior second baseball Tim Rupp all added two hits.

Parmley homered for the eighth time this season. He had three RBIs and scored twice.

Russell got his sixth home run of the year to go along with two RBIs and three runs scored.

Klocke had three RBIs as the All-American continued to close in on the school's career record in that department.

Jones, who delivered two RBIs, increased his hitting streak to 15 games. His .446 batting average ranks eighth nationally.

Haseltine pushed his hitting streak to 17 games, the longest current streak in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Southeast needed all of that punch to subdue the Bears, the last-place team in the Southland Conference which had one of its top offensive performances of the year.

UCA, which entered the series batting just .274, had 14 hits and a season-high four home runs.

The Redhawks and Bears combined to use 15 pitchers, eight by Southeast as Hogan did not want to extend any of his hurlers with an OVC series coming up this weekend.

Junior left-hander Logan Mahon, a conference starter, was impressive in working the first three innings. He allowed no runs and two hits while striking out two and walking none.

Junior Brad LaBruyere, a Central High School graduate, fired off a scoreless fourth inning but UCA was able to do damage against most of Southeast's other pitchers.

Junior Trent Wise (1-2) wound up earning the win as he allowed a run in his inning of work. It was the first Southeast victory for the junior college transfer.

Southeast built a 4-0 lead through two innings and the Redhawks led 6-3 entering the bottom of the sixth when UCA put up four runs to go ahead 7-6.

The Redhawks regained an 8-7 lead but UCA forged an 8-8 tie through seven innings.

Two-out RBI singles by Klocke and Jones in the eighth inning gave the Redhawks a 10-8 lead and this time they were able to hold on.

Parmley drilled a three-run, two-out homer in the ninth to make it 13-9 and allow Southeast to withstand UCA's two-run ninth.

Wednesday's contest ended a stretch for Southeast that featured nine of 10 games on the road. The Redhawks went 5-4 in those road dates after dropping their first three.

Southeast, which leads the OVC by two games, resumes league play this weekend with a three-game home series against Murray State.