Redhawks move into first place

A second straight late-inning comeback by Southeast Missouri State on Saturday gave the Redhawks their first Ohio Valley Conference series victory against Jacksonville State and a share of first place in the conference.

Southeast scored three runs in the eighth inning to rally for a 3-2 win at Capaha Field. The win moved the Redhawks to 7-2 in the OVC, tied atop the standings with the Gamecocks.

"It's a huge win for us," freshman starter Josh Syberg said. "It puts us on top of the conference and we're going to keep going with it."

The Redhawks opened their conference schedule with a sweep of Tennessee-Martin, and last weekend the Redhawks took two of three against Murray State. Murray State and UTM won just four of 12 OVC games heading into this weekend, and were picked in the bottom three of the preseason poll.

On the other side, JSU had swept preseason favorite Samford and Austin Peay, which was picked fourth in the preseason poll.

"I think we opened some people's eyes," Southeast first baseman Matt Wagner said. "Now we have to keep our place on top."

For the third straight game both teams' starting pitchers were on. JSU starter Donovan Hand, who won the OVC pitcher of the week the previous two weeks and was the OVC freshman of the year two years ago, did not allow a hit until the fifth inning. The Redhawks managed just two hits through seven innings.

Syberg was equally effective for the Redhawks. The freshman southpaw made just one real mistake in his first seven innings, allowing a leadoff home run to Jake Ball in the fifth.

"This guy Syberg has been doing that for a long time," Southeast coach Mark Hogan said. "In a way, the bigger the game, the more he's tuned in. ... To me, Josh almost pitch-for-pitch matched Donovan, and that's saying a lot."

In the eighth inning, Syberg had a rare loss of control, walking two batters. Syberg had walked just seven batters compared to 45 strikeouts in 39 innings entering the game. The Gamecocks sandwiched a hit in between the walks and had the bases loaded with one out.

Hogan stuck with his freshman, and Syberg threw the pitch to get out of the inning, inducing a sharp ground ball to shortstop Robbie Moore. The Redhawks retired the runner at second, but Omar Padilla's return throw to first was high and a run scored. Ivan Nails replaced Syberg after the run to get the final out.

"He threw the double play ball and we didn't get it," Hogan said. "With the two guys that handled the ball, Moore and Padilla, I'll take that any time. We'll turn that 99 out of 100.

"The thing about it is it showed the character of our players [to come back]. That's the sign of a good ballclub."

Hand pitched around a leadoff single in the eighth and had two out with a runner on first when Southeast started its rally. Nick Harris picked up his first hit of the series to put runners on first and second with two out. Cleanup hitter Asif Shah followed and scorched a 0-2 pitch into center field to push across the first Southeast run.

Wagner, who tied the second game of Friday's doubleheader, again came up clutch with a game-tying single down the third-base line.

"Asif had a big two-out hit in front of me, and I got two strikes early and tried to fight something off," Wagner said.

Shah scored the game-winning run on a passed ball by all-OVC catcher Richard Turner. The pitch came from reliever Jon Clements, who came in to face Wagner.

Nails allowed a single in the ninth but was able to retire two straight left-handed pinch hitters to close out the game. The right-handed closer picked up his second win to go along with three saves.

Syberg allowed six hits, three walks and struck out six in 7 2/3 innings. Syberg lowered his ERA to 3.79 in conference play and 3.09 overall.

Southeast will play its next two OVC series on the road, staring with Samford on Saturday.

"You try to win every series and right now we're three-for-three so it feels really good," Hogan said.

Shah led Southeast's six-hit attack with a 2-for-4 game. Omar Padilla had his 11-game hitting streak snapped with an 0-for-4 performance.

Leadoff hitter Bert Smith and No. 3 hitter Garrett Bass, who came into the game hitting .379 and .327 respectively, were 0-for-6.