Saint Louis baseball team unleashes seven-run frame to beat Southeast Missouri State

Nothing that Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Steve Bieser and the Redhawks threw at the Saint Louis Billikens was able to slow down the sixth-inning barrage of offense on Tuesday night.

The visiting Billikens (20-25) regained the lead for good with a seven-run sixth and snapped a four-game losing streak to the Redhawks with a 12-8 victory at Capaha Park.

"It was a devastating inning to this ballgame," Bieser said. "It was a killer because we went after it to try to use our setup man and our closer that early in the game to try to control that inning and keep us the lead, and it just kind of fell apart on us. ... I think everything that a team could do, [we] did it wrong in that inning, and that's a shame that we let it get that far away from us because if we were able to keep it within a few runs we had a chance in this game."

Southeast held a 4-2 lead after five innings. The Redhawks got an RBI single from Garrett Gandolfo in the first before SLU tied it in the top of the second with a leadoff home run by Devin Mahoney, and then took a 2-1 lead after a walk, stolen base, wild pitch and RBI single in the third.

Southeast shortstop Brandon Boggetto tripled in the tying run in the home half of the third and scored on a groundout to give the Redhawks back the lead. They added one more in the bottom of the fifth before stranding the bases loaded.

Trailing 4-2, the Billikens' big inning began when Josh Bunselmeyer reached on a fielding error by Boggetto, who described the grounder to him as tough with some top spin, but one that he should be able to make.

Bunselmeyer moved to second on a passed ball and third on a wild pitch before starting pitching Jacob Lawrence issued a walk and was relieved by lefty Jake Busiek.

In a lefty-lefty matchup, Mahoney got an RBI single to cut it to 4-3 and Busiek allowed another base hit to load the bases. He had an 0-1 count on Trent Leimkuehler when he was replaced by closer Justin Murphy.

Leimkuehler then ripped a two-run single to left to put SLU ahead. Murphy allowed another RBI single and then drilled a batter in the back with a pitch to load the bases, before issuing a walk that made it a three-run game. He struck out Bunselmeyer before giving up a two-run single that made it 9-4 Billikens.

"We came out with a lot of energy and were playing well and then we just kind of hit a wall and we started playing really sloppy and they took advantage of our mistakes," Southeast shortstop Branden Boggetto said. "It's a tough one to swallow."

SLU led 10-5 after seven innings and 12-7 after eight. The Redhawks got one final run in the ninth on an RBI groundout by Boggetto, who went 2-for-5 with three RBIs.

Southeast had several opportunities earlier in the game. Gandolfo was on third with two outs in the first inning and didn't break for home on a pitch that went to the backstop.

In the bottom of the fifth Gandolfo was thrown out at home by the Leimkuehler on a single to right by Chris Osborne for the second out of the inning. Hunter Leeper then drew a walk to load the bases but was stranded with a strikeout.

Southeast got an RBI single from pinch hitter Daniel Costello in the bottom of the seventh and Trevor Ezell followed with a single to center, but the Redhawks ran into the final out of the inning when Costello and Scott Mitchell, the lead runner, both ended up at third and then caught in a rundown.

"It's just sloppy play," Bieser said. "You can't run with your head down. We had two outs and had a ball kind of bounce back through the middle of the infield -- we've got to be able to score with two outs and a ball bouncing through there. Their outfielders do have strong arms, plus arms there and they made good throws, but we've got to be better understanding right when the bat makes contact we've got to be running and do a better job of making our turns and making it easier to score on those plays."

It was only the third home loss for Southeast (31-13), but the first one that was by more than one run. The Redhawks (20-4 Ohio Valley Conference) travel to Tennessee Tech to face the Golden Eagles in a three-game series beginning Friday.

"We showed a lot of energy, we showed a lot of fight," Bieser said. "We never backed down. We kept trying. Until the last out was made there was nobody that wasn't involved and wasn't expecting to make a comeback. I thought all the way through the game we really showed great effort and that's something that we want to continue to do. When we play better baseball and we have that type of effort every single game, we've got a good chance to win a lot of games."