Redhawks baseball team to try for sweep of IPFW

~ Southeast won its first two games against the Mastodons

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team had a relatively easy time in winning the opener of a three-game series with IPFW.

Saturday's second contest was more of a struggle before the Redhawks held on for a 3-2 victory.

Southeast improved to 3-2 while the Mastodons from Fort Wayne, Ind., fell to 0-5. The Redhawks will go for the series sweep in today's 1 p.m. matchup at Capaha Field.

"They played well today. They came out ready to play," said sophomore Kody Campbell, an Oran High School graduate. "Luckily we were able to come away with the win."

The Redhawks were fortunate after IPFW had a golden opportunity to at least even things in the top of the ninth inning.

After the Mastodons already had scored once, they pushed the tying run to third base with one out. But Michael Adamson stranded the runner by getting a ground ball and a pop up.

"Things went our way today," Southeast coach Mark Hogan said. "It was a good win for us."

During Friday's 5-0 victory, Southeast scored in each of the first four innings while IPFW only had two hits and very few good scoring opportunities.

The Redhawks managed single runs in the second, fifth and sixth innings Saturday. They finished with seven hits to match their total from Friday.

"We were pretty well neutralized offensively. Their pitchers did a good job," said Hogan, whose squad stranded 10 runners. "We had a lot of guys on base but just weren't able to come through."

IPFW had many more solid chances to score Saturday than in the series opener, but Southeast's pitching staff turned in its second straight strong performance.

After three hurlers combined on a two-hit shutout in the series opener, three more pitchers combined on a six-hitter Saturday.

"Our pitchers have been coming through," Campbell said.

Senior Kyle Gumieny, Southeast's only returning conference starter from last year, notched his first win of the season with six shutout innings in the longest stint by a Southeast hurler so far.

Gumieny (1-0), making his second start, allowed just two hits. He struck out four and walked three.

"He threw really well on a cold day," Hogan said.

Gumieny, who lowered his ERA to 1.74 covering 10 1/3 innings, came away satisfied.

"I was able to just keep them off balance," he said. "I put zeros up and we got the win."

Trailing 3-0, IPFW finally scored its first run of the series on a bases-loaded walk against junior college transfer Nick Thomas in the seventh.

Adamson came on in the eighth with a runner on second and one out. He immediately got a fly ball to right that turned into another out after the IPFW runner was ruled to have left second too early while tagging up.

Then things got really hairy in the ninth as a leadoff single, a walk and a double steal put runners on second and third with nobody out.

A sacrifice fly made it 3-2 and the runner from second went to third. But Adamson was able to close out the victory with a ground ball to second and a pop fly foul to third.

"The biggest thing I'm thinking about is you can't let the situation get to you," Adamson said. "Luckily it [the ball hit with one out] went to the second baseman."

Adamson is among the more interesting of Southeast's 19 newcomers, 13 of them junior college transfers.

A two-way player, Adamson has been one of the Redhawks' starting outfielders while also serving as their closer. The save Saturday was his second, after he nailed down a win at Auburn last weekend in an outing that also required five outs.

"I love it," said Adamson of filling two key roles for the Redhawks.

Adamson began his college career at Division I Middle Tennessee State in 2008, where he primarily pitched. He transferred to John A. Logan (Ill.) Junior College last year because he also wanted to play the field.

Adamson, who bats right and throws left, had a hit and an RBI Saturday before moving to the mound. He is batting .348 so far.

"He was a two-way guy in junior college and he's doing a great job in both roles for us," Hogan said.

Campbell and juco transfer Ky Burgess both had two hits. Juco transfer Taylor Heon added an RBI.

Southeast did not commit an error for the second straight day.

"We just almost had to do everything right in this game," Hogan said.