Shah goes the distance to beat MU

~ Southeast posted its second consecutive win against the Tigers, as the junior left-hander threw 193 pitches.

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Mark Hogan was afraid he'd have a mutiny on his hands. So in spite of Asif Shah having already thrown more than 100 pitches, Hogan left his junior starter in the game.

"He begged me to stay in, and the boys were just all over it," Hogan said. "Asif's one of our all-time favorites. É The dynamics of the dugout were awesome. If I would have taken him out, I think they would have thrown me out of the stadium. I really do. I got overruled by my guys."

Shah, who doubles as an outfielder and spot starter/reliever, threw 193 pitches in a complete-game victory, Andrew Johnson hit a grand slam, and Levi Olson added a pair of RBI doubles for the Redhawks in a 9-5 victory over Missouri on Wednesday night on Simmons Field.

Shah pitched six innings of shutout baseball March 29 in the Redhawks' 3-2 victory over Missouri in Cape Girardeau.

Shah (2-1) gave up eight hits, walked seven and struck out five Wednesday. Two of the five runs were unearned.

"That was amazing what he did tonight," said Johnson, whose third-inning grand slam put Southeast up 6-0. "He was battling his butt off the whole game. A great performance, one we'll be talking about for a long time."

In the third, Southeast leadoff hitter Omar Padilla reached on a single, took second on a wild pickoff attempt from Missouri starter John Thies (a Central High School graduate) and scored when Olson doubled to the gap in left center.

After Aaron Rave reached on an error and Phillip Riley singled, Dustin Pritchett drew a walk to force in the Redhawks' second run. Johnson, a converted pitcher, then turned on the first pitch he saw from Thies and sent it over the scoreboard behind the left-field fence.

"That was a total inning for us," said Hogan, whose team improved to 13-18. "Without everything falling into place, we don't have the huge inning. Several guys stepped up tonight and were really tough outs."

Rave, a freshman, was 4-for-5 to lead Southeast, which had six starters with multihit games. A day after picking up 13 hits in a loss to Southern Illinois, the Redhawks collected 17 hits off Missouri.

Pritchett also homered for the Redhawks, his first in a Southeast uniform, while Padilla, Andrew Graham and Daniel Schuh all added two hits.

"We always need momentum going in the way we've had our offense going the last couple weeks," said Johnson, who also had a triple in the fifth inning. "We've been a little slow, but the last couple days, we've been able to get hits."

Thies (1-1) gave up six runs on eight hits in 2 2/3 innings in his first collegiate start. He walked one and struck out five.

Missouri (16-15) suffered its sixth straight loss.

Designated hitter Jacob Priday and left fielder Zane Taylor had RBI hits as the Tigers answered back with three runs in the bottom of the third. But it took fielding miscues for the Tigers to score again.

Missouri third baseman Brock Bond scored when Taylor's groundball hopped away from first baseman Rave in the seventh. In the eighth, Riley couldn't grab hold of Bond's grounder as J.C. Field scored from third.

In the sixth, Olson drove in Padilla with a double into the right-field corner, and then Olson scored on Rave's single. Pritchett hit a solo home run leading off the eighth for the Redhawks.

Southeast hosts Ohio Valley Conference leader Samford in a three-game series beginning Friday.

The Redhawks will meet the Tigers for a third time on April 26 in Kansas City, Kan.