Southeast baseball team lets early lead slip away against Arkansas State

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team carried over its offensive outburst from Sunday into the season-series finale against Arkansas State on Tuesday.

The only problem was the Red Wolves' offense was better.

After building a six-run lead through three innings, Arkansas State scored eight unanswered runs and never relinquished the lead in a 12-10 defeat of the Redhawks, which featured a combined six home runs and 29 hits between the teams.

"When you get a 6-0 lead, as a pitching staff you've got to be able to hang on to that lead, and we've got to do a better job of piecing that together," Southeast coach Steve Bieser said. "We knew that we were shorthanded from having to start our series [with Austin Peay] on Thursday that there were a couple guys off limits, and we wanted to make sure we had for Thursday, but we've got to be able to bridge it with some other guys in the middle of the game, instead of going to our set-up guy and our closer that early. I think that was the difference in the game, that our middle guys could just not bridge that and shut them down."

Southeast scored six runs on six hits, including three solo home runs from Dalton Hewitt, Brandon Boggetto and Garrett Gandolfo, to grab a 6-0 advantage after three innings.

Southeast Missouri State's Clayton Evans doubles against Arkansas State during the second inning Tuesday, March 31, 2015 at Capaha Field. (Fred Lynch)

With the lead in hand, Garret Stockton cruised through the first three innings, allowing just three hits. But in the fourth, the right-hander ran into trouble, giving up a one-out solo home run, which started a four-run inning for the Red Wolves.

Stockton got the next batter to pop out for the second out, but proceeded to hit a batter and surrender a walk before giving up back-to-back singles, which cut Southeast's lead to 6-4. ASU brought nine batters to the plate in the fourth and had four hits.

The Red Wolves scored four more runs and batted around again in the fifth to take the lead for good.

Stockton faced two batters, allowing a walk and a hit batsmen before he was replaced by Brady Wright.

Wright's fourth pitch to ASU second baseman Joe Schrimpf was launched into left-center field for a three-run home run and gave the Red Wolves a 7-6 lead. ASU added another run with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth when Wright threw a wild pitch over the head of catcher Scott Mitchell, which allowed a runner to score from third.

Southeast Missouri State starter Garret Stockton pitches to an Arkansas State batter during the first inning Tuesday, March 31, 2015 at Capaha Field. (Fred Lynch)

"We strung together some [at-bats] that were back-to-back-to-back-to-back that were really helpful," ASU coach Tommy Raffo said. "That's the biggest key to having big innings, and they did it in their innings. You couldn't stop it. We did that in our innings, and luckily ours came at the right time,and we were able to stop them from having another one of those innings."

Southeast answered with a run in the fifth to cut the lead to 8-7. Hewitt led off the inning with a double and scored two batters later on Boggetto's single down the right-field line. Hewitt finished 3 for 4 with two doubles and a walk.

"Every game you want to come out and swing the bats well, and I think we've been doing a good job of that lately," Hewitt said. "There's a couple innings where I think it could've been a little bit better, but obviously that's going to happen. It's baseball."

ASU scored three more runs in the sixth to extend its lead to 11-7 and added one more, a solo home run, in the seventh.

Southeast Missouri State's Dalton Hewitt, left, is congratulated by teammate Branden Boggetto after Hewitt's solo homer against Arkansas State during the second inning Tuesday, March 31, 2015 at Capaha Field. (Fred Lynch)

Southeast countered with a run in the sixth and three more in the eighth to pull within 12-10.

With runners on second and third and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Gandolfo had a chance to extend the game, sending a sharp line drive to left field. However, the ASU left fielder was in perfect position to make the catch, ending the Redhawks' attempt at a comeback.

"All he had to do was fade it a couple feet either way and I think he's got extra bases and we tie the game up right there," Bieser said. "But Gandolfo took some really good approaches out there, and hit a very hard line drive out there. The ball wasn't placed in the right spot and you can't control that. He put a great swing on it and that's the way it goes sometimes."