Southeast baseball team sweeps doubleheader and series against Jacksonville St.

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team scored a combined 15 runs on 20 hits to complete a doubleheader and series sweep of Ohio Valley Conference opponent Jacksonville State on Saturday at Capaha Field.

Rain in Sunday's forecast forced the two teams to add an extra game to Day 2 of what was scheduled to be a three-day series.

After falling in a two-run hole early in Game 1, the Redhawks scored four runs in the fifth inning to come away with a 9-5 win. Southeast scored four runs in the first inning of Game 2 and never relinquished the lead in a 6-3 victory to cap the weekend sweep.

Southeast (25-14, 16-5 OVC) won its seventh straight OVC series of the season and extended its winning streak to five games. With the win, the Redhawks also remained in first place in the OVC ahead of second-place Morehead State, which is 11-7 in the conference. JSU fell to 19-19 overall, 7-11 in the OVC and moved down to ninth place in the conference standings.

"We're starting to get late into the season where you do pay a little attention to that," Southeast coach Steve Bieser said of the conference standings. "I've always said that the biggest thing we worry about is what we can control. And what we can control is to go out and play good on the weekend. We knew it was going to be a tough series, and if you really go back and break down the series, just a couple plays separate the teams in all three games. We made some plays to make it happen for us and everything kind of rolled our way. We were fortunate to get out of here with a sweep and keep up our pace in first place."

The Gamecocks led 2-0 after the first two innings in the opener, scoring both runs on sacrifice flies, but the lead only lasted for a few more innings.

Trevor Ezell cut it to one with a leadoff solo home run in the fourth. Then in the fifth, Southeast brought nine batters to the plate and scored four runs on two hits.

Ryan Rippee led off with a double and Scott Mitchell walked before Jason Blum laid down a sacrifice bunt down the third base line. One batter later, Clayton Evans was hit by the first pitch he saw to load the bases for Ezell, who walked to force home a run and tie the game.

After a JSU pitching change, Branden Boggetto continued his hot hitting streak in the No. 2 spot in the batting order with an RBI double that scored Mitchell and Evans to give the Redhawks the lead for good.

"It really doesn't matter where I'm at in the lineup," Boggetto said. "I'm just going to go out there and put some good swings on the ball and do what I can to help the team."

Boggetto, who hit a walk off home run in the Redhawks' 5-4 win over the Gamecocks on Friday, finished 2 for 5 with two RBIs in the Game 1 win. The junior shortstop had been hitting eighth for Southeast but was moved up to the second spot on Saturday to give Blum, the Redhawks' regular No. 2 hitter, a chance to get out of his slump.

"This is the first time he's been in the two-hole this season, and I thought he did good job," Bieser said. "I still believe Blum is our No. 2 hitter, and really the goal was to try and get Jason going again. Sometimes you worry about messing with Boggetto, but he's just so locked in right now that you can't really hurt him. He's good from wherever."

Southeast capped the four-run inning when Ezell scored on Garrett Gandolfo's sacrifice fly to center field to extend the lead to 5-2.

The Redhawks pushed their lead to 9-2 by adding two runs in both the sixth and seventh innings on RBIs from Evans, Rippee and Andy Lennington. JSU scored three runs in the seventh on two home runs but were held to just one hit in the final two innings.

Travis Hayes picked up his second straight win on the mound and improved to 6-4. The senior right-hander struck out four and walked three in eight complete innings.

"I think after those first two innings, once I kind of found my groove a little bit, my fastball and curveball command was pretty good for the most part," Hayes said. "Especially with a team like that, where you've got three deadly hitters in the three through five spots, the biggest thing was just working with Scotty [Mitchell] and just letting my defense work."

With two outs in the first inning of Game 2, Southeast exploded for four runs on two two-run home runs from Lennington and Rippee. The Redhawks added another run to their lead in the fifth when Boggetto hit a leadoff solo home run, his third of the series and seventh of the season.

"I'm seeing the ball well right now, and I'm trying to stay aggressive at the plate," Boggetto said. "I was kind of challenging myself to see if I could get another one or at least come up with a big hit there to kind of end this series on a high note. But it's nice for us to be able to come out today and get the two wins and the series sweep against these guys."

The Redhawks scored another run in the seventh on Mitchell's bases loaded pinch-hit RBI single after the Gamecocks had cut the lead to 5-2 on RBI doubles in the sixth and seventh innings.

Alex Winkelman improved to 2-2 on the hill. He went 6 2/3 innings, striking out eight and allowing just two earned runs. The junior left-hander said he felt anxious to get back on the mound after battling a stomach bug during his previous start. Winkelman, the reigning OVC Pitcher of the Week, struck out four and walked one in recording his first victory of the season in the Redhawks' 4-0 victory over Eastern Illinois last weekend, but said he vomited prior to the game and throughout it.

"Last week was rough for me. I didn't fell good throughout my entire start but still won," Winkelman said. "Today it was good being back healthy and really being able to work all week. I had to take some days off to try and get over this thing, so just to be back and get a couple bullpens in, that was big for me. I think all of us felt like we had a good week and are coming on strong, playing at our best during the right time of the season."

Southeast will travel to Carbondale, Illinois, to wrap up its season series against Southern Illinois at 6:30 p.m on Tuesday before beginning a three-game series in Murray, Kentucky with OVC rival Murray State at 6 p.m. Friday.