Southeast baseball team takes game two of series

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team continued to hit consistently and find ways to score runs on Saturday at Capaha Park.

The Redhawks (5-2) used a five-run seventh inning to defeat Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne 7-6 in the second game of a three-game series.

IPFW relief pitcher Connor Lawhead issued three straight walks to Cole Bieser, Matt Tellor and Derek Gibson to load the bases in the seventh inning.

Andy Lennington followed Gibson with a deep fly ball to left field. The ball caught a gust of wind making it hard for the IPFW left fielder to track it down. The ball missed the outfielders glove and bounced to the left of him, allowing all three Southeast players to score easily and give the Redhawks a 7-4 lead. Lennington was awarded a triple on the play.

"I was just trying to look for a fastball to hit," Lennington said. "He had decent velocity and our scouting report on him was great. I figured he would give me something good to hit and he did, but the biggest part was that it was a huge momentum shift for us."

Christain Hull started on the mound for the Redhawks and retired the first 14 batters he faced.

He ran into trouble in the fifth inning when he hit IPFW's Shane Trevino with a pitch. Kristian Gayday followed with a two-run home run, tying the game 2-2. Hull gave up two hits and two earned runs in his five innings of work.

The Redhawk's bullpen had not given up a run in 11 consecutive innings, but that changed after Travis Hayes gave up two earned runs on three consecutive hits in the sixth inning to give IPFW a 4-2 lead.

"They actually looked human today," Southeast coach Steve Bieser said of his bullpen. "They weren't as sharp as they have been in past games this year, but they also came up big in some game-deciding spots."

Greg Mosel got the Redhawks out of trouble in the sixth inning by retiring the three batters he faced with no outs and runners on the corners, and closer Garret Stockton secured the win with a strike out in the ninth inning with the tying run on third.

Bieser said Mosel and Stockton deserve recognition for recording outs in tough spots.

"I have a lot of confidence in these guys," Bieser said. "You think about some of those situations that could have been worse for us. I give credit to Mosel for coming in and getting the outs we needed with runners on the corners, that's huge for us."

The Redhawks close out their three-game series with IPFW Sunday at 1 p.m.